(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)
It was honestly unbelievable... The Lyoko Warriors were separated from their group, and now one of them shows up practically right on their doorstep!
After being discovered by Aelita and Chase in the van on the road, Sophia was led by them back to the motel to recuperate with her friends and the people they had met. Now she was sitting on the couch outside of the RV, allowing Mark to take a look at that nasty cut on her hand and to fix it up for her.
The little girl didn't say much to anyone since she was still a bit frightened, but she did thank Mark for giving her a juice box to drink and a pack of crackers to eat. Mark himself was busy cleaning and bandaging up her wound, which luckily didn't seem to need any stitches.
The poor girl was so hungry and thirsty and so cold after all this time in the forest by herself. She had no idea how far she had gone from the others since everything that happened on the highway...
She wanted her mommy...
The Lyoko Warriors gave Mark and Sophia their space but continued to watch them in awe and utter disbelief. Many of them thought that they'd never see her again, and now here she was - alive and reasonably well for a girl who got lost in the forest.
Sophia still being alive was proof to the Lyoko Warriors that Rick and his group couldn't be too far away from Macon. Their friends were somewhere close, and they had to go out there and try to find them. They couldn't waste a chance to reunite with their friends.
Ulrich especially adamant to get out there to find the others. If there was a snowball's chance in hell that he'd finally find Yumi again, he'll bet everything on it.
Meanwhile, some of the motel group was also watching Mark and Sophia, specifically the girl herself. Most of them were just happy that Sophia wasn't out there all by herself anymore, that she was safe and getting some much-needed food, water, and rest.
But of course, there was someone among them who didn't like the fact that she was here...
Larry's eye twitched from a barely-suppressed rage as he looked at the girl, unable to believe his group's bad luck. How many fucking freeloaders were out there these days?!
His anger reached the point where he couldn't hold himself back from speaking anymore.
"... are we seriously just gonna let in another mouth to fucking eat up all our-"
"Fuck off, Larry." was what Jennifer bluntly told Larry, not even giving him a chance to finish his sentence.
The old man didn't appreciate that comment. Larry's face flushed red as he shot daggers at the teen. "Fuck yo-!"
"Finish that sentence and I swear to god I'll feed you your teeth." Chase warned, sticking up for his girlfriend. In solidarity, he and a grateful Jennifer gave each other a high five and then a fist bump, neither of them looking away from the gaze of the infuriated old man as they did so.
Larry was mad before, but now he had actively started to storm toward the two teens. Chase and Jennifer didn't budge, but the old man didn't reach them thanks to the timely intervention of both Lee and Chris.
"All of you guys calm down." Lee demanded as he went to keep the two teens where they were. Chris likewise went to stop Larry in his tracks before he could do something really stupid.
"Yeah, ain't no need for anyone to tear each other's throats out." Chris agreed, not wanting to see a metaphorical (or literal) bloodbath in the shitty motel he and the others called home.
Sadly, Larry didn't see the wisdom in the words from either Lee or Chris. In a rage, he suddenly raised his fist and plowed it right into Chris's jaw. The teen didn't stumble back at all though... he merely spat out some of the laughably small amount of blood which was in his mouth before glaring right at Larry.
"... that all you got?" Chris challenged the old man, ready for whatever else the fucker decided to throw his way. He didn't care what Lilly would say - he'll gladly give back whatever Larry dared to try next.
Lee, thankfully, moved to get between the two before anything else could happen with them.
"Enough, both of you. I'm serious." Lee warned both the teen and the old man from continuing this. He wasn't going to deal with a completely needless fight in the middle of their own home. Especially in front of that poor girl they just rescued.
Larry, who was pissed off for the hundredth time in practically as many seconds, finally turned and stormed off from Lee and Chris, not wanting to deal with their sheer idiocy any longer.
Along the way he noticed Blaze walking along his path. Larry would've given the mutt another good kick had Miranda not spotted Blaze and rushed to pick him up into her arms before Larry could get to him. The girl simply shot daggers at the old man as he stormed past her and the dog...
Stupid fucking mutt... stupid fucking girl... stupid fucking kids!
And those three stupid fucking diptshits for letting them all come in!
As Larry stormed off with a renewed hatred from the teens and vice versa, Mark finally finished fixing up Sophia's hand. It wasn't his best work but it had been fully cleaned up and bandaged. In a couple of weeks the only evidence of her injury will just be a nasty scar.
"She's got some bumps and bruises along with a few scratches, but she is otherwise unharmed." Mark announced the good news to the others after he finished fixing up Sophia's hand and examining her. Aside from the cut and some very mild dehydration, she was otherwise well.
"So she doesn't have any bites? She's okay?" Anne asked, amazed to see that this little girl managed to get through the walker-filled woods by herself.
"None that I can find." Mark confirmed as he stood up, deciding to let the Lyoko Warriors finally get their chance to talk to the girl.
"Thank God..." Odd said with relief. He was glad that Sophia hadn't gotten infected while she was out there.
Carol would be overjoyed to see her daughter... but for that to happen, the Lyoko Warriors just had to find her and the others.
Although the Lyoko Warriors were all very relieved that Sophia was okay, they still had to ask her some questions and try to figure out where Rick and his people could be by now. None of them wanted to risk overwhelming the poor girl, but they desperately needed to know anything and everything she could tell them.
Rick's group was still alive. Hopefully they'd find Kyra, Charles, Robert and Yumi were all still with them...
Trying not to startle the poor girl, Jeremie pulled up a chair and he sat across from Sophia, flashing her a warm smile.
"Hey, Sophia... Are you doing okay? How's your juice box?" Jeremie inquired in a soft tone.
"It's good..." Sophia muttered, setting the juice box aside for the moment as she nervously averted her gaze. She was shy and nervous, no one held it against her.
"Sophia... I, uh..." Jeremie began but trailed off, hesitant to ask so soon after everything she went through.
He forced himself to get his voice back and continue. "I know that you've been through a lot recently, Sophia... but we need to know what happened to you and why you're all by yourself." Jeremie told her. "What happened out there...? Where's the others...?"
The events of the last day or two were hard for Sophia to deal with. The memories were still fresh...
Running from the highway... getting lost and separated from everyone...
Having to survive the whole night in the forest all by herself...
"I lost my mom and I couldn't find her..." Sophia told him, her voice fearful and weak. "I did what Rick told me to do, but a monster found me and I had to run... a- and... I- I didn't... couldn't..."
Monsters... walkers...
So many of them... terrifying her and hunting her all night long...
... Sophia never wanted to be by herself ever again ...
"Slow down, Sophia..." Dylan gently said to her as he went to stand next to Jeremie's chair. "You're tired, you're freaked out, and you've been through a lot. Take some deep breaths, count to ten in your head, and start from the beginning. Take your time..." he instructed.
Sophia nodded at Dylan and she did as she was requested. Breath in, breath out, breath in, breath out...
She had absolutely no idea where she was and she ran for what seemed like hours. She was terrified, but if she calmed herself a bit more then maybe she'd be able to find her mommy again.
After calming her breath and counting to ten in her head, Sophia continued.
"W- We ended up leaving the quarry." Sophia began to explain. "We stayed for a day and waited for you guys to come back, but you never showed up. We even looked around but we couldn't find you, and Rick said that we couldn't afford to wait longer for you guys..."
Sophia continued. "Some of us thought you were dead, but Yumi, Charles, Robert and Kyra all wouldn't believe it. They all threatened to stay at the Quarry all by themselves until you guys could get back there, but Rick convinced them to go with us. He said we might find you guys outside the city..."
The Lyoko Warriors were all very relieved to know that the others and their four missing members were still alive. Ulrich was ecstatic to hear that Yumi wasn't dead.
Their friends were alive, they were still in a group, but where the hell were they? The forest they were in was a big place and who knew where they could even begin looking.
The fact that Sophia somehow managed to stumble upon them like she did defied the odds all by itself.
"So the group is still alive. This is good..." Aelita smiled for a moment, but soon it faded. "But how did you get separated from them, Sophia? Can you tell us that, please?" she asked with a soft tone to her voice, just like how Jeremie did.
"I- I don't know... I ran as fast as I could from the monster and I got lost, and- and... I... I- I- just-" Sophia hesitantly said, her nervousness clearly beginning to come back.
"Easy, Sophia..." Dylan urged her for the second time. "Do you wanna stop and take a break? We can talk about this later if you can't right now..."
Sophia shook her head. As upset by everything as she was, she knew that they needed to know all that had happened. The more they knew, the more likely they could find her mommy and bring her back.
After a moment or two, Sophia continued. "We were on a highway... but we stopped there 'cause a bunch of cars were blocking the road. A bunch of the monsters showed up right after that... We all hid under some cars, but one found me and I had to run..."
"Oh god..." Aelita whispered to herself, horrified that the poor child had to go through that.
"B-But Rick found me and he told me to hide for a bit so he could lead the monsters away and kill them." Sophia continued, having not heard the pinkette. "Rick wanted me to run back to the highway while he distracted them..."
"And you got lost after that?" Ulrich inquired just for the sake of clarification.
Sophia nodded. "He said: "keep the sun on your left shoulder", and I tried my best..." she told him. "b- but a monster tried to bite me and I had to run in the other direction until it got dark... I- I got lost, I ran all night... and I found the motel after the sun came back up, a- and... I-I... I..."
Tears fell down the poor girl's face, but she managed to get one last thing out before she broke down entirely.
"... I- I just want my mommy."
Aelita pulled the crying little girl in for a tight hug. The pinkette allowed Sophia to quietly cry on her shoulder as she gently brushed her hair with her hand, trying to sooth the poor child as best she could.
The Lyoko Warriors had heard all they needed to hear, so they decided to just leave the poor girl alone for now. They had what they needed to at least begin a search.
"Thank you for telling us all of that, Sophia." Odd smiled down at the child. "I promise that tomorrow morning we'll head out and we'll find the group, and we'll get you back to your mom." he gave a promise which he intended to keep.
Sophia heard Odd but she didn't reply. She was far too worried and far too upset to even talk at the moment.
As Aelita continued trying to console her, Jeremie, Chase and Ulrich walked a distance away with Lee and Carley to speak privately with them. They certainly couldn't leave the motel and go on their way to who knows where now that Sophia was here. They had to reunite the girl with her mother.
No matter what happens, they had to find Rick's group... soon.
"Sophia said that your group is stuck on a highway?" Carley asked, thinking to herself. "The forest around the motel is a big place, but we know of a highway that borders the western side. I'd put some good odds on your group being somewhere over there."
"Can you guys help us look around for our friends?" Jeremie inquired to the adults.
Carley and Lee shared a glance. They didn't have much on hand to start a huge search, but they couldn't let these kids go out there all by themselves if there was a chance they'll find their lost group...
After a moment or two of silent deliberation, the two looked back at the teens and nodded at them.
"Carley and I know the area pretty well." Lee told the teens. "We can lead you around, show you those highways, help you look."
"By what she said to us, I think your group is probably somewhere on Interstate 75." Carley added just so everyone would know where they were going.
The group heard someone call out to them, and they turned to see Kenny was approaching.
"We'll have to look in the morning though. If we went out now then we'd get lost just like how Sophia did." Jennifer logically stated to the two adults.
"Agreed." Lee said with a nod. "Tomorrow morning some of us will head out with you and we'll see if we can find your group."
"Will Lilly mind?" Ulrich couldn't help but wonder.
Given how... "receptive"... Lilly has been toward the teens over the last couple of days, it was a valid question to ask on Ulrich's part.
"... Lee, Kenny, and I will handle her if she objects." Carley replied after a moment. She was certain Lilly will object, but that wasn't going to stop her and Lee from helping these teens find their friends again.
Feeling relief in that he and the others would have help on their search, Jeremie could only nod and smile with gratitude at the adults.
Lee and Carley and the teens decided that Sophia would stay here at the Motel with the rest of the group for her own safety. Meanwhile, in the morning, Lee, Carley, Chris, Chelsea, Aelita, Anne, Jeremie, Dylan, Chase, Ulrich and Odd were all going to go out and try to find Rick's group.
They could all only hope for success...
At around 6:30 the next morning, the Lyoko Warriors and the motel group were preparing to send some of their own out into the forest once more. The search for Rick and his group was on.
Jennifer and Dylan were busy cleaning their handguns by the RV, preparing themselves for whatever they were going to face out there. Many of the others were doing the same for their guns and knives.
In the parking lot, Ulrich had been practicing some moves against a makeshift (AKA built entirely out of old scrap and trash) dummy with his katana. He didn't see a point in letting himself get rusty even in spite of the current circumstances.
Already the dummy had been ripped and torn apart by Ulrich's blade, but now he felt it was time to end this and get ready for the upcoming outing.
Taking a deep breath, Ulrich raised his sword up above his head with both hands, focusing on the target in front of him. It wasn't a walker, but it'll do.
Ulrich held his pose for several moments before he swung it down in a downwards motion - decapitating the makeshift dummy on the spot.
As the fake head (AKA a half-rotten watermelon) fell off and splattered on the ground, Ulrich cleaned off and then sheathed his katana.
He knew he'd probable make ample use of the weapon while out searching with the others... He certainly wasn't going to get rusty anytime soon.
After dubbing his practice satisfactory for the moment, Ulrich went to grab his backpack and his gun so he can get ready to head out. But just before he was going to head into the room he and the other Lyoko Warriors were lent and in which all their stuff was, Ulrich could make out the sound of giggling.
The brown-haired boy turned to see that Clementine was hiding behind the old ice machine. Ulrich simply blinked with confusion when he noticed this.
"Um... Clementine? What are you doing behind that?" Ulrich inquired as he walked back toward the ice machine and to the side of it, trying to get a look at the hidden girl.
Clementine let out another quiet giggle. She was clearly excited about hiding in there for some reason.
"... I'm hiding from Duck." Clementine told him with a whisper. She was so quiet that Ulrich could barely hear her.
"Hiding?" Ulrich blinked as he suddenly felt very confused.
Before Clementine could answer, Duck burst out from a nearby door and searched around the parking lot for something, but he became disappointed when he couldn't find what he was looking for.
The boy looked pretty confused as he hurried over to Ulrich, letting out an annoyed groan as he approached.
"Have you seen Clem anywhere?" Duck asked with a whine. He looked pretty frustrated. "We're playing hide and seek and I can't find her anywhere!"
Hide and seek? ... huh. Ulrich didn't really know what to think about that.
You know, after all this time he and his friends have spent struggling to survive each day in this horrible apocalypse, the idea of kids doing something as normal as playing hide and seek honestly felt weird for Ulrich to imagine now. And he was sure it would stay that way for many years to come...
Shaking himself out of his thoughts, Ulrich decided to cover for Clementine and just hope the two children would keep their game inside and away from the walls. Better for the kids to play it safe than to be sorry they didn't.
After telling Duck that he hadn't seen her, the little boyl simply sighed with annoyance and ran off to the stairs which led to the second floor walkway of the motel, wanting to head back inside one of the rooms upstairs and double-check a closet that his friend might've been in.
"... thank youuuuu." he heard Clementine whisper with gratitude from behind his back.
With a smile, Ulrich turned and nodded politely at the girl before he went back to his and his friend's room to grab his stuff.
Back in the parking lot, Aelita was exiting the RV with a plastic tub in her hands which contained several rifle magazines, a few of the National Guars rifles, and a huge box of ammunition, straining from the very heavy weight of it all. Luckily, Chris was there and he hurried to give her a hand.
"Thank you..." Aelita smiled at the teen as he took the big box and all the rifle magazines from her arms.
"Don't worry about it..." Chris smiled back. He was straining a bit but it was not nearly as bad as Aelita's was.
Chris set the heavy box and the magazines down on the table which Jennifer and Dylan were using for tinkering with their pistols. Chris brushed his hands before he left to find Misty, and Aelita sat with the other two teens so she could start the tenuous process of loading bullet after bullet into each magazine.
Dylan and Chase had taught Aelita how to load bullets during their days at Kadic Academy. There was a shooting range in Paris that the brothers, their Uncle David, and Jennifer all went to together about once a month, and sometimes Aelita or one of the others in the group went with them.
It made for good practice. And given that they spent a lot of their time fighting an evil computer AI, it was a skill which could've proved useful every now and then. By the time they came to America, some of the teens proved to be pretty crack shots.
Aelita loaded the bullets into the magazines one by one. She hoped that they wouldn't be needed while she and the others were out there looking for their friends, but it was better for them to be safe than sorry.
As she loaded the magazines, Jeremie came over and handed her a bottle of water he scrounged up from his backpack. She thanked him with a kiss before he sat down with her and helped her with this long and boring task.
Things were going well preparation-wise until the group saw Lilly approach from her motel room...
"The fuck is all of this?" Lilly demanded to know as she approached the group. Her scowl had become a familiar sight with the Lyoko Warriors, unfortunately.
"It's alright, Lilly." Chelsea assured the woman. "We're all just heading out to help these people find their group, then we'll come right back."
"And you didn't clear it with me first?" Lilly's scowl only grew darker.
Chelsea looked a bit taken aback by Lilly's anger. She knew Lilly was angry at all these new people being here, but to not even try to reunite a lost child with her mom...
"Lilly, I don't see what the harm is in helping them." Chelsea told the woman in a sterner tone than she probably intended. "Besides, isn't this something which you wanted to begin with? The sooner we reunite them with their friends-"
Lilly interrupted the teen. "They can go out and do it them-fucking-selves then!" she said, her tone much more hostile than Chelsea's ever was. "They don't need to take any of us with them, and we don't need to waste any more of our shit on them than we've already had!"
"It's not a big deal, Lilly!" Misty protested, then she crossed her arms. "Besides..." she added, "what on earth makes you think you can stop anyone from going with them?"
That challenge briefly brought shock upon Lilly's face, though only briefly.
She looked pissed off before. But now, she looked absolutely furious.
Lilly didn't get a chance to mouth off to Misty since her father barged forth and pressed his finger so hard into Misty's chest that she stumbled back a bit. Chris had to be held back by Chelsea from running over to beat the shit out of that motherfucker.
Larry didn't notice. He was too fucking pissed at Misty to notice anything else, really. And the old man began to make that clear with his words.
"How fucking dare you talk to my daughter like that, you fucking rude little harlo-"
Larry suddenly stopped speaking in mid-sentence, and one of his hands went up to clutch his chest.
The old man had reached a point where he had become so angry that his chest began to hurt - a sign of the heart problems he had suffered from for much of his life.
Wordlessly, and while groaning from pain, Larry's other hand digged into his pocket to fish out some of the nitroglycerin pills which were found in the hospital days ago. The senselessly-angry man downed a nitro pill, then he downed a second one when the pain didn't cease. The pain did a few moments after he took the second one, but he also started feeling very nauseous as a side-effect.
The Lyoko Warriors all shared a glance. Now they knew who those pills were for...
Larry wanted to keep getting in Misty's face and to make her know not to be rude to his daughter. But now he was just trying not to puke or fall over...
After giving Misty a final glare, Lilly hurried over to her dad's side and took him by the arm, beginning to lead him back to his room so he could rest...
"... okay, it was good talkin' with you!" Odd quipped, sarcastically waving at the two.
A lot of people had to bite their lips and hold themselves back thanks to that. Ulrich broke on the spot, unable to hold in a much-needed laugh thanks to his jokster of a best friend. Ulrich's failure likewise caused several others to break and start laughing with him.
Larry would've said "fuck you!" or ran back to hit Odd and Ulrich for being fucking morons, but, again - he was too busy trying not to puke or pass out.
Now that Lilly and Larry were gone for the moment, everyone went back to what they were doing before the moment was ruined. As they did, everyone could hear Duck and Clementine's excited laughing after he finally tracked her down behind the ice machine, winning their hide and seek game.
It didn't take long before the search party was ready to head out. Everyone said their goodbyes for the moment, and everyone was confident that they'd be able to find the people they were looking for.
Maybe today would be the day that the Lyoko Warriors and Sophia get reunited with their people...
After grabbing some rifles and pistols and magazines of ammunition, the search party set out with a mission and a hope for it to succeed...
A few hours had gone by since the search party left the motel. Carley, Chris, Chelsea, and Lee all took the lead, having a general idea of where they could all start looking thanks to what Sophia had told them after she was found.
Their best best was to check along Interstate 75 which led to Macon from Atlanta. Lee and Carley weren't there to see it, but Chris and Chelsea both remembered how badly that highway got choked up with vehicles when the military rolled into Atlanta. All the abandoned cars blocking the way would work in the search team's favor, along with the likelihood that those people would stay for a while to try and find Sophia.
With luck, they'll find that "Rick" guy and everyone else all of these newcomers had gotten separated from.
The search team stayed together for a while as they walked through the trees, toward that highway, but it was eventually decided that the group would split into two.
Aelita, Anne, Dylan, Jeremie, and Carley all headed south to try and check the direction that Sophia came from. If anything, they might be able to stumble onto Rick or one of his people combing through that area for traces of Sophia. It was a big forest, but there was only so many logical places to which she could've ended up.
Lee, Chelsea, Chris, Ulrich, Chase and Odd all headed north to check and see if some of Rick's group was looking somewhere out that way for her. Given that Sophia herself had lost track of where she had gone, Rick's group probably would assume she did that and, as a result, spread their search into different areas.
Sooner or later one of these two search parties had to be successful in finding someone from Rick's group...
Lee kept a tight hold on his pistol as he and the others in his group made their way through the forest. Ulrich had his revolver stuffed in its holster and his katana out and ready to go. Odd borrowed one of those National Guard rifles that they found a few days ago at the hospital, and Chase was using his family heirloom pistol which both he and his brother treasured.
"You guys see anything yet?" Lee quietly inquired as they walked through the forest.
"Nah..." Chris shook his head, speaking just as quietly. "I think I saw some tracks earlier but I think they were deer." he added.
"This is going to take all day." Odd quietly groaned with sheer boredom.
"Just shut it and keep walking..." Chase quietly chastised his friend.
The group continued to move through the trees as cautiously as possible. These woods were full of walkers and they were fully aware that it would only be a matter of time before they ran into some.
The agreement was that if either search team came across walkers, they would only use their blades to take them down. Bullets were only to be used for nothing less than an emergency situation, as gunfire would easily attract more of the monsters. If walkers were drawn to them, they wouldn't have a hope of finding Rick and the others.
As if on cue, a single walker suddenly came out of the treeline and began stumbling towards them, snarling as it reached out its arms. Ulrich went over and silently slashed its head in two with his katana, letting the remains crumble down to the ground.
Another walker came out from the bushes, but Lee lowered his pistol and he approached the creature head on. To the group's astonishment, Lee simply pulled a meat cleaver out from his waistband somewhere and took care of the walker pretty easily thanks to one hard thrust to the skull.
The teens all approached Lee with bewilderment as they watched him clean the blood off the meat cleaver with aid from the walker's ruined shirt.
Lee noticed how the teens were staring at him and he blinked at them with confusion.
... where exactly did he hide a meat cleaver all this time? Honestly, Lee pulling out of nowhere like that looked like something out of a video game.
Before any of the teens could ask Lee as to how he pulled a meat cleaver out from behind his back like that the group suddenly heard bells...
... church bells?
Without hesitation the group began to hurry as fast as they could in the direction that they thought the sound of the church bells were coming from.
If bells were being rung, then someone was ringing them. There was only one reason the group could think as to why someone would want to draw so much attention upon themselves like this...
... the ringer was searching for a lost little girl in the forest!
"C'mon, we've gotta move!" Chris stated to the others as they all ran as fast as they could. To his own astonishment they might actually find these people they were looking for!
As the group continued running towards the sound of the bells, some more walkers began to come out of the trees around them. However, they couldn't afford to stop since they had no idea how long those bells were going to be ringing for. They simply cut down the walkers with their blades as they ran past them.
Unfortunately, however, the group ran into a river. The three teens recognized it as the same river that Lee, Mark, and Kenny had saved them from the walkers just a few days ago. However, they also noticed an old walking bridge that strode across the river, although there was several more walkers all over it.
They had to get through them... each second they delayed ran the risk of the church bell ringer leaving that church.
Without hesitation, Lee and the teens hurried over to the bridge and readied to face off against the walkers. Ulrich gave a loud whistle to get the attention of those monsters, but they didn't really have time to react since the group cut them down very easily as they ran across the bridge.
However, there was a problem, as Odd hit a walker in the head with his knife but it didn't go down... In fact, the walker seemed to only get angrier and it grabbed Odd before the teen could properly react.
"ODD!" Ulrich exclaimed as he hurriedly doubled back to help save his friend.
Odd used every bit of his strength to keep the walker from biting him until Ulrich arrived. With the help of the samurai, Odd managed to push the walker away from him and inadvertently over the side of the bridge, sending the creature into the water below.
Unfortunately, Odd had lost his combat knife as it was still buried in the walker's skull when it went over the side of the bridge. But the main thing to take away from this was that he at least still had his life, and keeping that was worth losing a knife.
Odd and Ulrich looked over the side of the bridge and saw that the walker had somehow landed on a rainbow-colored inflatable inner tube that came from somewhere downstream. Now the walker was sitting within it and it couldn't get out...
Although they were in a hurry, both Odd and Ulrich were so baffled that they just kept watching the walker as it floated away. Amazingly it seemed like the creature was nestled in the tube pretty good... it didn't look like it would get out of the thing any time soon.
"Guys! What the fuck are you doing?!" Chelsea chastised after she saw they had stopped to stare at something unimportant. Didn't they know they couldn't stop now?!
Both Odd and Ulrich were shaken out from their bewilderment, and they hurried toward the other side of the bridge. It didn't take long for them to catch up.
As the six ran, they heard the church bells growing louder and louder. They were definitely getting closer by now... They continued running for what seemed like miles until they made it to a treeline.
Through the trees, they could make out a small white building with a cemetery that surrounded three sides of the structure. On the building was a small steeple, and the group could tell that the almost deafening sound of church bells was coming from it. They found the source.
Ulrich suddenly felt his hopes begin to rise. He was finally going to reunite with Yumi today...
With silent nods towards each other, the search party quietly readied their weapons and they began to approach the building, all keeping a watchful eye out for any walkers that may be lurking around or may be approaching because of all the noise...
Chase kicked open the back door of the church and the others all hurried inside with him. All had their weapons drawn and were ready for anything which dared to confront them.
The inside of the church still looked as if it was untouched in recent weeks. Even the large crucifix of Jesus Christ on the wall didn't have a speck of dust upon it.
Alas, the four saw they weren't alone. A disturbing sight was that there was some former churchgoers still sitting in the pews, but, as they were now walkers, soon they were standing up and snarling once they realized that some prospective meals had arrived.
Odd hurried to look for whatever or whoever was causing the bells to ring as the others all dealt with the walkers. The five of them proved to be more than a match for all these corrupted worshipers.
By the time all the walkers were killed, however... a heartbreaking discovery was made by Odd.
The teen didn't see any trace of Rick's group ever being in the building. Even worse, he saw there wasn't even a way to enter the steeple - the bells were likely being rung through some speakers on an automatic electronic timer rather than manually by a human.
Rick and the others in their group were never here...
As Odd, Lee, Chelsea, Chris, and Chase looked around to try and find the speaker controls, Ulrich felt so dejected and crushed that he needed to take a moment. The boy went to set his katana down against one of the pews and he tiredly sat down on it, leaning his head back as he shut his eyes for a moment.
He was so sure that he would find Yumi again... he had his hopes set so high on finding her, and now they were crushed...
Although he normally kept himself pretty stoic about his emotions, Ulrich felt some tears welling in his eyes as he realized that there truly was a growing certainty that he may not ever see Yumi again...
Ulrich wiped the tears out of his eyes and he lowered his head, rubbing his own knuckles with his thumbs before he looked up at the large crucifix hanging on the wall. But as he looked up at the giant metal man on the wall, a thought came to his mind. A thought of desperation perhaps, but a thought nevertheless...
... Ulrich was not a spiritual person, and he certainly never had any intentions of turning to religion like how his parents did. In fact, he usually avoided that stuff all together. Kyra was a religious person and so was Alexandr and Jennifer, and back at Kadic they'd usually invite him to go to church with them on Sundays.
He always said no. But this time he was desperate... very desperate... he was willing to do anything if it meant seeing the love of his life again.
It couldn't hurt to just ask for some help... right?
After making sure the others weren't looking anywhere in his general direction just as a matter of defending his personal pride, Ulrich put his hands together and he shuffled in his seat a bit before he lowered his head. Then he silently mumbled some sort of improvised on-the-spot prayer to the crucifix in the hopes that he would somehow be reunited with Yumi Ishiyama once more.
Ulrich hadn't really done this sort of thing before. And admittedly even he knew that his prayer was... well, it was sort of crappy.
But Ulrich did his best, and he swore to God or whatever other higher beings there were that he'd pay the favor forward to someone, someday, somehow.
Ulrich kept this up for a few quiet minutes, and periodically he would peek around his shoulder to see if any of the others were looking at him. None of the three noticed, much to the relief of Ulrich's pride.
Soon he decided to wrap this up. But he had just one last thing to say to whoever or whatever was listening to him now...
"Please..." Ulrich said - no, begged, as he prayed. "please just let me see Yumi again... I don't want to lose her... I can't lose her too."
A single tear finally rolled down the side of Ulrich's face, dripping down to the hardwood floor under him...
Ulrich made his best attempt of the sign of the cross and he finally opened his eyes and raised his head again. He looked at his surroundings almost as if he expected Yumi to just appear there out of nowhere like a divine gift...
... but she wasn't. All Ulrich saw was the crucifix, the walker corpses, and his friends still trying to find a way to turn off those annoying bells.
Again, Ulrich got his hopes up, much to his own sadness and frustration at himself...
He should have known better than to-
Suddenly the church bells went quiet, and this wasn't caused by Lee, Odd, Chase, Chelsea, or Chris.
The four heard the front doors suddenly be kicked open by someone. Blinding sunlight blared into the church from the front and the four readied and aimed their weapons at the front doors since they assumed a shitload of walkers were about to storm the church.
But it wasn't walkers. It was just one silhouette with a rifle in their hands... a living person.
The person cautiously walked further into the church until they were finally visible, causing Ulrich, Odd and Chase to gasp...
... as she cautiously stepped into the church after being lured toward it by those awful bells, Yumi assumed that the building was full to the brim with walkers or some kind of hostile wildlife, though she couldn't explain the bells. However, to her own astonishment, she didn't find walkers or wildlife inside...
Instead of a building full of walkers, she came face-to-face with two of her lost friends and the boy whom she loved - all still alive with some other people with them.
Yumi was so shocked and amazed to see the three teens that her AR-15 rifle simply fell out of her hands and clattered down onto the floor under her.
"... U- Ulrich ...?" Yumi stammered out a question as if she couldn't believe the three were in front of her. "Odd...? Chase...?"
"Yumi...?" Odd gasped in a similar form of shock. She was alive... she was actually alive!
Ulrich simply dropped his katana to the floor as he saw Yumi standing in front of him alive and completely unharmed. Both of them had finally gotten their deepest desire which had formed at the CDC... They were both okay and they were finally reunited with each other.
Wordlessly, both Yumi and Ulrich began to step towards one another, and within moments this broke into sprints. Seconds later, the couple were engulfing each other in tight hugs and they were both crying with relief and joy at each other's survival before they met in a loving, tender kiss.
At long last they were together again...
Their prayers had truly been answered...
More people began to come into the church as well... Odd and Chase recognized Kyra, Charles and Robert as the first ones to come in, and they were quickly followed by Rick, Shane, Lori, Andrea and Carol.
They had finally found Rick's group...
The two Lyoko Warriors hurried over to Kyra, Charles and Robert. The five met in a happy and joyous group hug...
"Y- You're all still alive!" Chase happily exclaimed with tears in his eyes as if he couldn't believe it, even despite what Sophia told the group.
"Where did you guys go?!" Kyra asked them, awed that they managed to reunite. "We looked everywhere for you guys after the CDC exploded!" she told them.
"We ran into the forest when the walkers showed up after the explosion!" Odd began explaining to his three reunited friends. "Patrick got hurt really bad, but we ran into a group near Macon who could help him! The people with us are from that group."
Chase nodded at what Odd had said. "Patrick would've died without their help," Chase added. "and I don't think we'd have lasted for very long without them either..."
As Kyra, Charles, and Robert all caught up with what Chase and Odd and the others have been going through since the CDC, Yumi and Ulrich were in their own little world. The couple continued to hug and kiss each other as if one would disappear if they let go.
Somehow they found the will to at least break their kiss, and both of them simply smiled at one another with tears in their eyes.
After so many days of uncertainty about the other's fate, it felt like a huge weight was taken off their shoulders to see each other still alive...
They were reunited... and God help anything and anyone which dared try to break them apart again...
"H- Hey, Yumes... Long time no see..." Ulrich managed to crack a joke, calling her by his affectionate nickname for her.
Yumi chuckled at that as she wiped away her tears with the sleeve of her shirt. "T- Took you long enough, you jerk..." she joked back at him.
The couple chuckled together, then met in another kiss...
As he looked upon Chase and Odd, Rick honestly couldn't believe that they were still alive. If they were here, then the rest of them couldn't be far behind them. Their group was finally going to be reunited...
However, Rick noticed that another man and a couple of other teenagers was in the church with them, and he didn't recognize any of them. But if Ulrich, Odd and Chase could trust this guy, then maybe he could too.
Instead of immediately questioning him, Rick simply walked up to the man and held out his hand.
"Rick Grimes." Rick said to the man as an introduction.
Lee glanced down toward Rick's hand. After a moment, he smiled at the sheriff and took it into his.
"Lee Everett." Lee replied, also introducing himself as he shook Rick's hand.
That's when the Lyoko Warriors noticed Glenn make his way inside. The guy looked more than a little anxious due to having to practically keep an eye on the back of his head ever since they left the highway to look for Sophia...
When Glenn noticed Lee standing near the teens, he suddenly froze for some reason.
"Lee?!" Glenn gawked, seemingly recognizing the man who was standing in front of him.
Lee turned away from Rick, his eyes widening from surprise when he noticed who had said that.
"Wait, Glenn?!" a stunned Lee sounded equally as shocked. "What the hell are you doing here?! I thought you were going to Atlanta to try and find your folks?"
Glenn shrugged, though the look on his face quickly turned very morbid. "... let's just say that 'I found them'."
It didn't take a genius to figure out what Glenn meant by that. But even so, Lee was happy to see his friend again, and he and Glenn even embraced each other.
Chris and Chelsea made their way to Glenn and they each embraced him like how Lee did. Clearly the motel group knew the guy already... The two teens likewise made their own introductions to Rick, and thankfully there wasn't much suspicion or mistrust in the air from anyone.
The surprise of Glenn's prior affiliation was unexpected, but there would be time for everyone to go over that later. Right now, the important thing was that Rick's group had found some of their own again, and Chase and Odd found Rick and his people.
All they had to do was get everyone at the motel and get the other search team, then they'd truly be reunited...
Carol was surprised to see the two teens again, but she was still very disappointed that her daughter wasn't in this church. Shane found the controls to the automatic timer outside and he shut the bells down... Sophia, at least in Carol's point of view, was still lost in the forest somewhere.
"What the hell happened to you guys after the CDC? Where'd you go?" Andrea inquired to the newly-found teens.
Quickly, Odd and Chase gave the others another walkthrough of what had happened over the last couple of days.
Rick and the others were simply amazed by what they were told. The teens had better luck than they've had in the last few days, that's for sure...
"After the CDC exploded we went back to the quarry." Shane began to explain to the teens. "We stayed for a bit and we even sent out some people to look for ya, but you guys never showed up. We left some notes for you guys and we've been trying to get to Fort Benning since then." he explained.
"Fort Benning?" Odd asked with a bit of surprise. He knew they didn't really have another option destination-wise, though it was still a surprise to hear they were actually making a go for the place now.
"Where else are we gonna go after the CDC?" Lori explained to the teen with obviousness. Point made.
"But Fort Benning's way out to the west." Chase pointed out. "If I remember the map correctly, we're pretty far south of Atlanta right now..."
"We tried going west." Shane confirmed to the teen. "But we kept runnin' across hordes and hordes and more hordes of walkers... so we decided to go south for a while and see if we could find a highway which could lead us toward Columbus."
That explained why the group was all the way down by Macon... The Lyoko Warriors met their fair share of walkers in the forest after fleeing the CDC. The idea of entire hordes out on the highways sent a chill up the spines of Odd and Chase...
Ulrich and Yumi finally found the will to let go of each other and the two teens went to pick up their weapons that they dropped on the floor. While no one else was looking, Ulrich made sure to give a thankful nod to the crucifix for bringing Yumi back, and then he and Yumi went to join the others in their conversation.
"Anyway, we got stuck on a highway and T-Dog got his arm cut pretty bad by something when he was hiding." Kyra explained to Odd, Ulrich, and Chase. "He's still alive thanks to some antibiotics that Daryl had in Merle's bike, but we lost Sophia when a horde made its way through..."
"We've been out combing the woods trying to find her since yesterday evening, but we haven't had much luck..." Charles sighed from both exhaustion and sadness that they still haven't found the lost girl.
Carol broke down in tears as Charles spoke. Lori hurried over to her side to sit her down on a pew and comfort her.
"Sophia? You're looking for her...?" Ulrich asked, his eyes beginning to go wide. They were looking for Sophia... and he and the others had already found her...
"We don't know where she went." Yumi confirmed with a sorrowful tone. "We haven't seen her since she ran off into the forest..."
Carol began to break down crying as the thought of her only child came back into her mind. Her little girl being alone, terrified, hungry, tired and lost in a forest full of walkers...? It was unbearable to imagine her child in this state.
However, Odd, Ulrich, Chase, Chris, and Chelsea all glanced at each other for a moment, all knowing something that Carol and the others didn't.
After giving each other a nod, they looked back at Carol and the others.
"... we found Sophia." Odd announced to the others.
Rick, Yumi, Carol and the rest of Sophia's search party all looked at the teens and their motel friends with astonishment. Carol wiped away her tears and shakily approached the teens as if she couldn't believe what she had heard. They found her little girl...?
"Y- You found her...?" Carol sniffled as her red and puffy eyes widened.
"She showed up last night at the motel we've been staying at." Ulrich nodded. "We went out with some of the others to try and find you guys. They went south to look around, and we went north to do the same. Sophia said you guys were at the highway but we got lured to this church just like you."
Carol instantly shot up from the pew and hurried over to the teens.
"So... she's okay? My baby's okay?!" Carol asked in a very ecstatic state. "C- Can you take me to her...?"
"Of course!" Lee assured the mother with a smile. "Our place is about five or six miles away from here. We'll get you back to your daughter in no time."
Carol engulfed Lee in a very tight hug once she heard him say that. Lee blinked and he was surprised by her reaction, but he relaxed and he returned the hug without any protests.
With one hand, Yumi picked up her rifle by its handguard, and then she locked hands with Ulrich with the other after he grabbed his katana. The reunited couple gave each other another kiss on the lips before they and all of the other survivors in the church walked out of the front door together.
Within moments, Lee, Chris, and Chelsea began to lead the entire group back through the trees and towards the direction the motel was in. Odd and Chase both volunteered to go south by themselves to try and find the other search party and let them know that they found the others.
Ulrich, Odd, and Chase along with Rick and his people couldn't believe how well their search had went. They had finally found their friends again!
And by the end of today, they'll all be back on the road and resuming the journey toward Fort Benning...
At around the same time the other search party left the church and started leading Rick and his people back toward the Motel, Carley was leading Jeremie, Aelita, Anne and Dylan south through the forest. But unfortunately, without any walkie-talkies on hand, they had no way of knowing that the others had found Rick's group again.
For a while the five members of the search party did hear what sounded like very distant bells, but eventually they stopped. Besides, it was too far north somewhere for them to check on what was happening. The other team was going to have to check it out themselves.
This group decided to just focus on getting to that highway. And if they were lucky, they would get there within a couple of hours.
There was a few walkers they had to deal with along the way, but aside from that their trek was mostly peaceful. Aelita in particular was enjoying the sounds of the nature around them very much.
Even before Jeremie saved her from being trapped in Lyoko all those years ago, she had a huge love for nature. During their days at Kadic, Jeremie would sometimes take her for ice cream and some long romantic walks through the forest...
... she missed that. She hoped the world could heal someday so she and Jeremie can do that again, but she had her doubts it ever will.
As the group continued to make their way through the trees they suddenly heard a twig snap in a small clearing steps away from them. They all aimed their weapons through the treeline, but instead of a walker they saw a buck chewing on some fallen acorns. The group soon lowered their guns, relieved that they weren't in any danger.
Aelita stared at the buck as a small curious smile crept up on her face. Holstering her pistol for the time being, Aelita cautiously began to inch her way through the trees and towards the clearing where the buck was eating. Jeremie noticed this and watched his girlfriend with curiosity.
"Aelita...?" Jeremie whispered, wondering what she was trying to do.
"Shh..." Dylan whispered at him, wanting to just let his step-sister have her moment. Jeremie silently nodded in agreement.
The pink-haired teen didn't dare speak as she cautiously walked out of the treeline and approached the buck. To her astonishment, the buck noticed her, but he didn't try to run at all. The pinkette and the creature locked eyes as she approached it...
Aelita smiled and she slowly held up her hand as she stepped further towards the buck, admiring how beautiful the creature looked.
She was soon just a few steps away and she was almost close enough to touch it...
...
...
...
*BANG!*
The birds in the trees cawed as they flew away for safety, startled by the unexpected boom which ripped through the peaceful forest.
Anne gasped, her right hand suddenly reaching up to find some fresh blood dripping out of a brand new cut on her left shoulder. Not only was there the blood, there was also now a terrible burning sensation on the skin there.
Something had grazed her. It didn't take her long to realize what it might have been...
Someone had taken a shot at the-
A gasp of shock from Dylan suddenly turned her attention and that of Jeremie and Carley back toward Aelita. When she saw her, Anne's heart stopped cold.
The buck which had been standing in front of Aelita was now laying dead on the forest floor, a fresh bullet wound in the chest which signaled that a lead missile fired by some unseen person had went clean through its heart. The buck's lifeless eyes looked just as beautiful even in death, as Anne and the others unwillingly noticed.
Aelita herself was still standing exactly where she was, though now she had a noticeable tremble throughout her entire body. And as she turned to face her friends, everyone could only look upon her with realization and horror...
On Aelita's shirt, the others could make out a rapidly-expanding redness pouring out from her diaphragm and down the front of her body.
Jeremie himself was frozen stiff solid, unable to truly comprehend what he was looking at even as the image of his hurt girlfriend was burned into his memory forever.
Dylan's jaw fell open slightly as if he was certain that what he was looking at was merely a hallucination, as it was so unbelievable that it simply had to have been one. Anne and Carley likewise could only look on, not even sure what to do...
Aelita... someone shot her?
Someone shot Aelita?!
After a moment or two where it seemed like the whole earth itself stood still, Aelita's now-glazed eyes turned to look directly at Jeremie. Though dazed and confused and in serious pain, the pinkette tried to stumble her way back to him. Most of her chest and stomach was now covered in her own blood, and much more was coming out of her new gunshot wound and falling onto the dirt below.
Aelita only made it a couple of steps toward Jeremie before she suddenly stopped in her tracks.
She found the strength and pure willpower to say only one single thing to him...
"... J- Jeremie ...?"
Jeremie felt nothing but pure horror in his soul as he watched Aelita's eyes suddenly back into her skull, and he watched as she lost consciousness and fell down onto the forest floor like a board. The poor girl landed on her side and everyone could see she the blood beginning to pool underneath her...
But, as his mind kept trying to process what just happened, Jeremie could only stumble towards Aelita's unconscious body as if he couldn't believe she was shot.
This was a bad dream...
This was a bad, bad dream... this couldn't be happening right now...
... Aelita ...
As he finally started to fully comprehend what had just happened here, Jeremie - now more terrified than at any other point in his entire life - went from stumbling blankly in confusion to full-on running towards her body.
Jeremie was struggling not to panic. When he reached Aelita, he collapsed to his knees next to her unconscious body. The pool of Aelita's blood was growing bigger and bigger underneath her, and in desperation he pressed his hands down on her gunshot wound to try and stop the bleeding...
"AELITA?!" Jeremie screamed at her, tears rolling down the sides of his face. His tone matched horror and fear. "AELITA, WAKE UP!!! PLEASE WAKE UP!!!
Carley readied her gun and hurried toward the trees where the shot had come from. The woman was shouting with fury toward the unknown shooter, who Jeremie was far too busy with Aelita to give much notice to right now.
Dylan hurried over to Jeremie's side to help him tend to Aelita. Anne went as well, ignoring the wound on her shoulder since Aelita was clearly in a far worse state.
"Christ, is she-?!" Dylan exclaimed in shock, but stopped before he said the next word. He had no clue if he still had a step-sister or not.
"I DON'T KNOW!!!" Jeremie shouted back at him in a panic. His arms and much of his blue turtleneck were now covered in his girlfriend's blood.
"Oh god, oh god, OH GOD!!!" Anne exclaimed in worry. She was so focused on the pinkette that she had no idea just how bloody her left shoulder had become.
As the three desperately pressed their hands tightly onto Aelita's wound in an effort to contain the seemingly-endless bleeding, Jeremie couldn't hold back the tears. He endlessly pleaded for her to wake up. To survive this. To stand on her feet again as if this whole thing had never happened...
As Carley found the shooter, the three teens all felt a horrible thought go through their minds...
... what if Aelita was already gone?