(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)
As Anne, Dylan, and Jeremie all remained inside the farmhouse to be with Aelita, Maggie led Carley out to the horse stables. Normally Maggie would be able to track pretty well by herself, but with all the walker sightings in the last few days, Maggie felt that she would be better off with an extra set of eyes.
Maggie also had to remember an important request that the teens made. Just before she left the house, Jeremie, Anne and Dylan stopped her to tell her that she needed to bring one of the group members back with her immediately: a boy named Chase Enheart. He was Aelita's other brother and they said that it was important for him to be here.
The farmgirl promised to bring him back with her if she and Carley found their group.
The two women entered the horse stables and Maggie brought out two of the horses the Greene family owned. One was her favorite horse "Nelly", and the other was the one her stepbrother used to ride, "Savannah."
Just a normal news reporter before the outbreak, Carley had absolutely no experience riding a horse at any point in her life. What was a better time to learn than right now?
"How many were with your group?" Maggie inquired to the older man as she worked on setting the blankets and saddles upon the two horses.
"Counting the kids I'd say it's about seventeen or eighteen now, I think." Carley replied as she hoisted her rifle onto her back.
"That's good. The more people you guys have, the easier they'll be to find." Maggie stated as she attached the baseball bat onto Nelly's saddle.
Carley nodded in agreement as Maggie expertly climbed up onto Nelly's saddle, shifting position once or twice just so she could get better settled in. At the same time, Carley carefully approached Savannah and tried not to think of what would happen if the horse got mad.
The woman was just about to climb him when the horse simply grunted and began to get skittish. However, Carley put aside her sudden moment of fear, and she simply petted Savannah's mane and started to shh him to try and calm him down a little. Maggie simply watched from Nelly's saddle to see how this would go.
"It's alright, boy... I won't bite..." Carley calmly assured the creature.
After another moment or two of this the horse finally began calming down, and after another moment he had stopped being skittish. Satisfied that Savannah wouldn't try to buck her off when she would get on him, Carley hoisted herself up onto Savannah's saddle and gently petted him when he remained calm.
Maggie simply smirked, feeling genuinely impressed that Carley didn't end up thrown off.
"Not bad, miss." Maggie smirked at the rookie horse rider. Carley simply smiled at the farmer's daughter and nodded in gratitude.
Maggie then told Carley how to hold the reins and how to get Savannah to go faster, how to go slower and how to get him to stop. Carley memorized the instructions as best she could before the two began heading off of the farm's property and onto an old trail which led into the woods.
With luck they'll find the motel group soon...
A few hours later at the motel, most of the Lyoko Warriors and the motel group were all hard at work packing up their supplies and all of their other belongings for the journey to Fort Benning. The remainder were standing guard with guns out front in case walkers or the stranger who attacked Odd and Chase shows up.
At the moment, aside from the three who were out by the front "gates", the only people who weren't helping with the packing was Patrick, Clementine, and Duck.
Patrick because of his injuries of course, and Duck and Clementine because they were just kids.
As he packed up some of his things, Chris stopped for a moment to catch his breath and get a drink of water from the bottle he had set on a box close by. He still couldn't believe that there was a chance all of this horror could finally be put behind him, his friends, and also his sister and his girlfriend...
Those early days, back when Atlanta fell to the dead, back when it was burnt by the air force... they were ones which he desperately hoped never to repeat in his life.
Chris sighed and looked over to Chelsea and Misty, watching them pack up and load some boxes of stuff into the back of Kenny's truck. He hoped to himself that Fort Benning was still standing, if only just so those two could have an actual future instead of struggling to survive each and every day.
The group continued packing up their belongings as Verity went to relieve Kyra of her shift of guard duty and also her rifle. The Canadian teen would have considered Verity taking over to be "break time" if she didn't have to immediately go help pack with the others.
Verity took her position and held the rifle tight in her hands. If Odd and Chase's attacker dared show up, she'll make sure the bastard pays for what he did to them...
The raven-haired girl kept a close eye on the treeline opposite the motel. Right now, Doug and Mark were outside the motel doing a sweep of the perimeter, so she had to be very careful not to mistake either of them for a walker or the attacker.
As Doug and Mark rounded the motel's front and walked past for another sweep, Verity stayed at her post and continued watching the treeline for any hint of trouble...
What Verity didn't know was that someone was looking at her from those very trees, unnoticed and very dangerous...
The person in the trees held their stolen rifle up, and they were aiming right at Verity's head through its iron sights...
One squeeze... One simple, little squeeze...
The figure smirked to themself. A single squeeze of the trigger was all it would take for them to ensure that the bitch keeping an eye out for trouble would never have to keep an eye out for anything ever again... then while everyone was confused and trying to figure out what was happening, the figure can kill two or three more. Maybe more.
The figure could maybe even take down one of those stupid little kids playing in the parking lot just for fun. The blue and white hat on that little girl in the dress made for a pretty easy target...
At that moment, the figure in the trees felt more than a little bit tempted to fire their stolen rifle and kill that raven-haired girl who was keeping watch. But after taking some time to think to themself, the figure refrained from doing so in the end.
Lowering the rifle, the figure decided that they would watch their prey a little longer... maybe get a far better opportunity somewhere down the line...
They wanted to see the life go out of as many eyes as possible... they wanted their kills to be up close and personal.
They wanted to show these people that there were worse things out there to be afraid of than walkers...
"Not yet..." the figure whispered to themself as they hoisted the stolen rifle back over their shoulder, letting it hang with its strap.
The figure then affectionately tapped the stolen pistol they had tucked away under their jacket, already knowing exactly which three specific people they wanted to use that gun on the most.
If the figure already found one of those three... the other two couldn't have been far away... and the figure knew deep down that they were correct in making such a guess.
"But soon enough, you'll get what you deserve..." the figure suddenly frowned as they thought of those specific three. "You and all of your idiot friends..."
Deep in the forest, the volunteers were still busy trying to track down the other search team - Aelita, Jeremie, Anne, Dylan, and Carley.
The group was anxious to find their friends and let them know that they found Rick and his people. That both groups had agreed to travel to Fort Benning together.
With all the supplies they could combine, and with the combined amount of people and guns as well, they might have a good chance of getting there now.
As she walked with the others, Yumi kept a watchful eye out for any sign of the other search team that had been sent to find her and the others.
The teen was anxious to find them. To reunite with Aelita, Jeremie, Anne, and Dylan...
Yumi smiled to herself at the thought of what their expressions would be when they unexpectedly see her for the first time in who knows how many days now. Aelita, especially.
God, it was going to feel so great to see her best friend again... Aelita was the little sister Yumi never had, and she's missed her about as much as she missed Ulrich during the now-ended separation of the group.
"Something on your mind?" Ulrich wondered as he walked with Yumi through the trees.
"Just thinking of how they'll react when they see I'm here with you guys." Yumi told him with a sly look on her face.
Ulrich sounded amused as he chuckled. "Yeah, they're all definitely gonna be in for quite a shock today." he predicted. He couldn't think of anything which could shock them all more than this.
Yumi nodded in agreement. She and Ulrich continued to walk with the others for a while before she spoke to him again.
"You think they're alright?" Yumi wondered. "From what I've heard, it's been a while since they were expected to return to your motel."
"I'm sure they're fine." Ulrich gave a casual shrug. "You'll see. We'll find them, you'll have another happy reunion, and we'll all be right back on the road before you know it."
"Yeah..." Yumi replied, knowing that her boyfriend was probably right. It wouldn't do her good to worry, especially since today was supposed to be a good day full of reuniting with friends and journeying to a safe haven.
Within the next few days, the Lyoko Warriors, Rick's group, and all of these motel people would all reach Fort Benning and this nightmare they shared would finally end. They wouldn't have to struggle to survive anymore.
With military protection, they'll finally get to live again. And over time, they and other survivors in the country can restore civilization.
... and if she was really lucky, Yumi would find all of the Kadic students and faculty there - her brother included.
... Hiroki ...
Yumi shut her eyes as she thought of her little brother, the boy whom she had not seen since Paris. All this time she was so focused on surviving and keeping her friends safe that she hadn't found any chance to try and track down her brother or anyone else from Kadic...
She was certain that they all made it out of Atlanta when the air force dropped the bombs on the city. But where could they have gone after that? Yumi desperately hoped they somehow made it to safety at Fort Benning, but given how bad it is out there these days...
If they didn't make it to Fort Benning... or to any other safe place...
...
...
... they didn't die. Yumi wouldn't entertain that thought.
The people from Kadic were tough, and if they somehow made it out of Atlanta, then they definitely could survive out in the wilds of the new world until she found them.
Right now, Yumi focused on only one possibility. That being they all either made it to Fort Benning, or that they all easily could have ended up exactly like the motel people or Rick's group - fortifying themselves at some defensible place and hoping for the best, or just barely hanging on as they travel the roads.
Either way, she was determined to find them all once she and her friends were able to do so. Who knows? Maybe when things start to calm down, the military at Fort Benning might even be able to give them a hand in the search once recovery and rebuilding efforts finally begin...
Suddenly stopping, Yumi lowered her AR-15 and took a quick look around. She spotted a good bush only steps away from the path she and the group were taking.
"One sec, I gotta use the bathroom real quick." Yumi told her boyfriend. She handed him her rifle and gave him a kiss before hurrying off to do her business.
"Alright. I'll be here" Ulrich nodded to her, flashing a hand signal to the others ahead of them so they'd stop and wait for him and Yumi.
Yumi hurried to a bush a few dozen feet away from the others and went behind it. Luckily for her it was thick enough to give her all the privacy she needed. And although she handed off her rifle to Ulrich for the moment, she kept her knife close just in case any of the dead tried to ambush her in such a vulnerable state.
As Yumi tended to her business behind the bush, the others up ahead tried passing the time as they waited. Some checked out their weapons to make sure they were still clean and ready to fire, others simply took in their surroundings.
"You guys really think things'll be better if we get in Fort Benning?" Kenny wondered aloud, trying his hand at making some small talk with the others.
"You really wanna push your luck in some crappy motel instead of a literal army base?" Glenn retorted to his old friend.
"... that's a good point."
Glenn nodded, still keeping ahold of his gun as he chatted with Kenny and the others. As much as he liked being in his new group, he was happy to be with his old one again too. He's honestly missed them since he left.
"You guys are gonna like my new group." Glenn then changed the subject. "They're all pretty good people... for the most part at least."
Kenny scrunched his face a little in response. "I'm sure they are... but I'll be honest, I'm not a big fan of that 'Shane' guy..."
No one, Glenn or Lee or Lyoko Warrior, felt an urge to disagree with the man. Shane had left a bad impression upon a lot of people by now...
"How'd you hook up with Rick and the others?" Lee then asked out of a sense of curiosity.
"Walker troubles. What else?" Glenn shrugged. "Met most of them on one of the bottled-up highways near the outskirts of the city and we all set up a camp in an abandoned quarry. Then I ran into Rick a while later when I was making a run into the city with some of the others. The rest is history."
"Sounds like you're still just as lucky as when you were with us." Kenny grinned.
Glenn laughed a bit to himself, though he kept it quiet since who knew if there was any walkers around right now. And he didn't mention how unlucky he felt most of the time either... that beautiful red hot rod he found and was forced to let be salvaged was a good example.
As the group kept chatting, Yumi had finally finished up her business and she stood back up, fumbling with the belt to her pants. The stupid little metal piece on it was broken and it was getting to be a huge pain in the ass for her to-
*GROWLS*
The black-haired teen's eyes widened and she turned just in time to see a snarling walker rush towards her from the trees. Before Yumi could raise her knife and shove the blade deep into its head, the walker had already pounced upon her and sent her straight to the ground with it on top of her.
The knife fell out of Yumi's hand as the girl struggled to keep the walker from biting anywhere on her body, but the creature was stronger than her and it was only a matter of time before its teeth would sink into her neck.
"HELP ME!!!" Yumi screamed out at the top of her lungs. "ONE OF YOU GET OVER HERE AND HELP ME!!!"
Nearly everyone else heard her screams. But even as they hurried forth back toward her, the walker was winning the battle.
Just before the walker could dig its teeth into her flesh, Yumi could suddenly hear strange sounds coming toward her right from deep in the forest. She managed to look past the walker, and to her astonishment she saw a pair of horses rushing straight towards her.
One the horses was two women who Yumi didn't recognize. One woman was in the lead, and Yumi could also see that she had a baseball bat in her hand.
The women beat the others to saving Yumi. The woman with the bat rode past and hit the walker's head as hard as she could with the weapon, causing it to deliriously roll off of Yumi as it's skull partially caved in. She had saved the teen with only a second or two to spare.
Yumi gasped with fear and exhaustion and she kicked herself away from the still somewhat-alive walker, but thankfully the walker was far too dazed to even attempt at eating anything for the moment. Ulrich hurried to her side and helped her to her feet, relieved that she was okay.
The couple met for a hug as the women on the horses stopped next to the whole group. Lee and Kenny were astonished to see Carley was here with this strange woman, and that she was riding a horse no less.
"All y'all friends with a girl named Aelita Schaeffer?" the woman asked the teens a little breathlessly as she and Carley had been riding the horses hard for the last two hours.
That simple question brought a sense of shock to all of the searchers. Even Yumi and Ulrich broke their hug and turned to the woman, neither truly believing they had heard her correctly.
Why did this woman want to know if they knew Aelita...?
How did this woman know Aelita?!
Odd was the first to overcome his shock and say something. "How in the hell do you-?!"
The teen was almost immediately interrupted by a Carley, who trotted her horse a few steps forward so she could speak to them all.
"It's okay, guys! This woman's named Maggie, and she's with me." Carley assured all of the others from the saddle of her horse.
Carley noticed that there was a few people with them who she didn't recognize, but she ignored it for now. "Dylan, Anne and Jeremie sent us both out to find you guys." she promptly added to help ease the others.
"Why did they want some stranger to find us?" Jennifer asked with genuine confusion.
"Do you know a girl named Aelita Schaeffer?!" the other woman, 'Maggie', interrupted the conversation and again demanded to know. They couldn't waste any time with all of these questions!
"Yes, yes we do!" Ulrich hesitantly told the horse rider. What the hell was going on here?!
"Which one of you is Chase?" the woman now known as 'Maggie' asked while feeling relieved that she and Carley had found the group.
Chase's eyes widened with surprise and he felt more than a few pair of eyes turn to look in his direction. What the hell did this woman want with him...?
With great hesitance, Chase lowered his national guard rifle and he curiously approached Maggie's horse. His approach got the woman's attention.
"I am..." Chase hesitantly told the strange woman. Then, he asked her, "what exactly is it that you want...?"
"Look, we don't have a lot of time." Maggie informed the teenager. "You need to come back to the farm with us... There's been an accident."
Then, the bombshell...
"Aelita's been shot..."
It was only three simple words, but that was all it took for several young shocked hearts to instantly stop.
... no, that wasn't right. That wasn't fucking right. They must've all just misheard that woman.
Aelita couldn't have been shot... there was just no way... there was just no way!
They just finally reunited the group... and someone shot one of them?!
"Aelita's been shot?!... AELITA'S BEEN SHOT?!" Odd exclaimed, his tone matching pure shock with outright fury over the shooting of his friend.
Oh god... Oh god...
"She's unconscious but she's still alive!" Carley told the cone-haired teen.
"What happened out there, Carley?!" Ulrich demanded to know from the woman. His face had turned pale at the thought of Aelita with a gunshot wound.
His vision beginning to blur and with white noise filling his eardrums due to how sheerly horrified he felt, Chase's face paled completely as his rifle fell right out of his hands. The teen silently stumbled a step or maybe two backwards as he struggled so hard to comprehend what he had just heard.
Jennifer hurried to see if he was okay while the other Lyoko Warriors took in the news as well. None of them were calm.
"We saw a buck in the forest while we were out looking for Rick's people, and a hunter was on the other side of the damn thing! He said that he didn't see her until after he already fired!" Carley explained what had happened to the group. "Anne got grazed too, but she's alright!"
"Who doesn't see a pair of teenage girls in the forest?! One with pink hair and clothes, no less!" Yumi growled with fury, shock, and utter disbelief about what happened to both Anne and her best friend.
"The hunter led us to the farm where he works!" Carley further added. "The farmer there's got medical experience, he's doing everything he can for Aelita right now! Aelita would already be dead if he didn't bring us there!"
A million thoughts and a million different questions were going through Chase's head and he had absolutely no way to stop it. He simply could not comprehend that his little sister had been shot by someone. It was overwhelming...
Was Aelita okay?
Was Aelita still conscious?
Was Aelita going to die?
Who could do such a horrible thing to the gentlest, kindest, friendliest girl in the world...?
Jennifer tried to ease him as best she could but she was having no luck reaching through to him at all. Like Chase and the others, she was terrified for Aelita's life, but she was also absolutely heartbroken to see her boyfriend like this...
"Jeremie, Anne and Dylan all asked for you, personally!" Maggie told the still-dazed teen. "Aelita's still alive, but you've got to come now!"
Finally, with all of her other options completely exhausted, Jennifer simply raised her hand and she slapped Chase in the face to break him out of his shocked trance.
Chase still appeared to be horrified and confused after the slap, but at least now he seemed to be aware of his surroundings once more. Chase could only nod at Jennifer with gratitude before he silently hurried over to Maggie's horse Nelly, drawing concern from some of the others.
"Hey, what're you doing?! We don't even know who she is!" Andrea protested to the teen's decision to trust a complete stranger.
"You can't get on that horse!" Kenny also protested as well.
After a few silent moments of contemplation, Yumi decided to go with Chase too. Yumi and Ulrich shared a hug and a kiss before she hoisted her AR-15 onto her back and went over to Carley's horse. Andrea and Kenny protested some more, but Carley managed to get them to simmer down.
Yumi climbed up onto Savannah and took her place behind Carley, wrapping her arms around the woman's waist for balance. As Yumi hopped on Carley's horse, Maggie helped Chase up onto her own Nelly and then she turned her attention back over to the others.
"Y'all head over to Fairburn Road! It's about five miles south off the highway. Two miles down Fairburn is our farm. You'll see the mailbox, the name is 'Greene.'" Maggie instructed the group on how to get to her farm.
"Wait, can you say that a second time plea-" Miranda tried to get the rundown again.
Not hearing her, Maggie and Carley each let out a loud: "HYAH!"' to Nelly and Savannah and then they bolted back in the direction they rode in from, causing Miranda to pout with annoyance. Chase and Yumi both held onto their riders for the journey back to the Greene Farm.
They each mentally prayed that Aelita was going to be okay... that she would survive this horrible day.
The others back were still recovering from the utter shock that Aelita was shot and Anne was hurt. It was unfathomable...
However, their attention turned over to the walker that Maggie hit in the head. It wasn't dead yet...
As the walker groggily sat up and tried to get up onto its feet so it could rush the group, Ulrich, who was still reeling from the horror that Aelita had been shot and could die because of it, angrily unsheathed his katana and he went to slice the monster's head in two. The creature fell dead onto the ground and Ulrich spat down on it's corpse.
One of his fists balled up from frustration at what happened to Aelita and Anne, and he said just two words to the dead abomination:
"Shut up..."
The figure knew it... they fucking knew it...
Still keeping an eye on the motel with their stolen weapons, the figure figured that the people who left earlier would return. Though even the figure didn't expect those people to return like how they did.
The mysterious figure watched as that small group of people who left earlier finally returned to the motel. But to the figure's surprise, unlike their peaceful and calm walk out hours ago, the group returned at a running pace, and they each looked as if they either heard or came across something horrifying.
It didn't take long for the figure to guess what had happened. The figure could hear some of the talking even from as far as they were from the motel.
"Shot?! What the fuck do you mean she was shot?!" he heard that Australian guy exclaim.
"Is Aelita alive?!" another voice was heard - a Canadian's probably, given that stupid accent of hers.
Ohhhh, so one of their friends took a bullet, huh? That must explain the single gunshot which the figure heard a long while ago...
"She's getting help at a farm on the other side of Macon!" he heard another person say. He recognized the voice as being that of the cone-haired boy who he beat the shit out of recently.
The figure risked repositioning themself to directly opposite of the front dumpsters which served as gates. It wasn't perfect, but the figure managed to get a view through the walls of the motel and into its parking lot. There, the figure could see practically everyone of this motel had gathered for a group conversation.
"What about Rick and the rest of our people?" a Russian-sounding voice was heard to ask.
"They're fine, Alex." some guy with a fucking katana replied. "They've all been stuck on I-75 north of town for the last day or two. They were trying to find Sophia."
I-75 north of town, huh...? The figure added that to his memory for later.
"Wait, you said that Aelita's getting help at some farm?" some adult with a southern accent asked with suspicion.
"Yeah, the lady told us its the farm of some guy named 'Greene'!" the cone-haired guy's voice was heard a second time.
Some guy with a baseball cap and an admittedly great moustache was who the figure thought the voice with the southern accent belonged to. And judging by the cone-haired teen's response, the guy with the baseball cap and moustache definitely didn't like what he heard.
"Hershel Greene's farm?" the guy asked with a low voice, one which was clearly of worry.
"Yes, that's what the woman on the horse said before she and Carley took Chase and Yumi." a girl with blonde hair said.
The girl's look soon became one of confusion and curiosity. "What's wrong, Kenny? I can tell that you don't like what I just said."
"Miranda, that 'Greene' guy has a recent history with me, my family, and Lee." the guy, 'Kenny', told the girl, 'Miranda'.
Some other guy stepped forward. "What kind of history do you guys got with-"
"His son got killed and it was technically our fault, Chris."
Silence filled the motel, but the figure was the exact opposite. It took every ounce of energy they had not to just burst out laughing at what they just heard.
Oh, this was just rich... some old guy was nice enough to take them into his home, and his reward? A dead son and the pain of loss.
The figure only wished they were there to see it for themself...
"... I beg your fucking pardon?" that 'Miranda' girl asked with an incredulous tone after hearing the explanation.
Even from here the figure could see that 'Kenny' guy cringing. "His son was fixing up a fence and my son... well, he was on the tractor next to the guy, and he accidentally pulled back the breaks. Crushed the guy's leg underneath one of the wheels..."
"... I beg your fucking pardon?!"
"It was an accident, Miranda!" Kenny protested. "Some walkers showed up and I grabbed my boy before I even really knew what was happening! The guy was dead by the time Hershel came out to help!"
"... you have any fucking idea what that guy's gonna think when he realizes Aelita's with you guys?! What if he refuses to help her any further because of what happened with his son?!"
"It wasn't our fault!"
"Try telling that to that 'Greene' guy, Kenny!"
The figure heard everything they needed to hear. 'Hershel Greene', 'farm', 'dead son'...
... okay 'dead son' wasn't too important at the end of the day, but it was still very funny to think about.
As 'Miranda' and 'Kenny' continued to argue with each other in the parking lot, the figure retreated back into the trees and out of sight. They've got quite a lot of ground to cover now, and they wanted to get a look at that other group before dark...
The figure would come to know everyone in the motel and in that other group, even if they don't know of the figure's presence...
And they'll all lead him to the three the figure seeks...
Back at Hershel's farm, the group continued to patiently wait for Maggie and Carley's return with the others.
Jeremie, Anne and Dylan were all in the guest bedroom with Aelita, who was still laying unconscious on the bed. Jeremie was exhausted from everything that had happened that day and he was even more tired from the blood draws, but he refused to leave Aelita's side no matter what.
Dylan was sitting on the other side of Aelita's bed and Anne was also sitting next to him. Anne's wound still hurt a bit but Patricia did a good job attending to it and keeping it as tended to as possible. As long as Anne kept it cleaned and bandaged then she should be fine from here on out.
Jeremie continued keeping an eye on his princess and he was closely monitoring her breathing and her heartbeat, having done so for hours now. Both Aelita's breathing and her heartbeat were still very weak, but as long as they were still there, then the knew he hadn't lost her yet.
"Jeremie, you really should try to get some rest..." Anne stated to her friend as she felt a little concerned for him. "Maybe you could head outside to get a little fresh air? You've had a really long day so far."
"I don't want to leave Aelita." Jeremie told the other two teens.
Jeremie glanced down at Aelita and reached out to cup her cheek, giving her skin a gentle pass with his thumb.
"I'm not even that tired..." Jeremie lied, not even looking away from his girlfriend's peaceful sleeping face.
"You were never good at lying, Jeremie." Dylan pointed out, having not been convinced by his friend's words.
The blond-haired genius continued watching over his girlfriend for a few more silent moments, but then he sighed and let go of her hand before he took off his glasses, rubbing his tired eyes with his other hand.
Jeremie had been in this room for hours already and he didn't remember the last time he ate, slept, drank something, or even went to the bathroom. And all of that was on top of his desperate miles-long run to the farm with Aelita in his arms...
"...... I suppose I could take five minutes to get some fresh air, at least." Jeremie reluctantly agreed with Dylan and Anne's suggestions. Five minutes away from Aelita's side wouldn't hurt either of them, right...?
"We'll stay with Aelita and keep her company while you relax." Anne assured her friend with a nod.
Jeremie nodded and then stood up out of his chair. He looked down at Aelita and let out a worried sigh before he leaned down and whispered to her a promise that he would be right back at her side very soon.
The supergenius gave Aelita's hand one more squeeze before he finally pulled away, and then he gave a soft smile toward Dylan and Anne before walking out of the room to head outside to the front porch, where a nice breeze was already hitting.
Once on the porch, Jeremie went to lean against one of the white railings to take in the sight of the farm and its lands...
The super genius gazed out at the farmlands of the Greene Farm and admired how serene they looked even in the middle of the apocalypse. It was actually pretty remarkable that Hershel and his family seemed to have avoided at least most of the horrors being wrought beyond his farm...
The Greene Family was very lucky... he only wished that Aelita had some of that luck for herself.
Hearing the front door of the house suddenly open and shut, Jeremie turned to see that Hershel himself was coming out to join him on the front porch. Jeremie didn't protest, as by now he's come to enjoy the company of that kind older man and lifesaver.
Hershel silently nodded to the teen while going to stand next to him. The elderly farmer was sure that the poor boy needed to talk and clear his head a little after everything that had happened today...
Admittedly, Hershel wasn't much of an intellectual, and he certainly didn't count himself to be not smart as how he heard Jeremie or Aelita were, but if he could help alleviate some of this boy's concerns then he felt he should at least try.
"Your farm's very beautiful, Mr. Greene..." Jeremie complimented the older man as he kept looking at the land.
"'Hershel', Jeremie. 'Mr. Greene' is a bit too formal for me." Hershel smiled at the teen before he resumed looking at the land. "This farm's been in my family for 160 years... It's a lot of work to maintain it, but it's home." he said with pride.
"I honestly can't believe how serene it is. How untouched it is... You're a very lucky man, Hershel." Jeremie stated as he turned to look at the farmer next to him.
Hershel's smile gradually began to fall as he kept looking at his land. This place has certainly earned a lot of memories in his mind, many of them good and many of them bad. Unfortunately, with the problems in the last few months, much of the more-recent memories have been bad ones.
"We weren't completely unscathed." Hershel truthfully said to the teen with a sigh. "We lost friends, neighbors. The epidemic even took my wife, and my stepson..."
"I'm so sorry to hear that, Hershel." Jeremie sympathized. He wished he could say that he couldn't imagine what it was like to lose someone he loved, but with Aelita getting shot, he's been forced to come face-to-face with that possibility.
Jeremie lowered his gaze. "For what its worth, I've lost people I cared about too." he told the farmer, solemnly remembering people such as William Dunbar, Amy Smith, the other students from Kadic Academy and also his own parents and his cousin Patrick Belpois.
He missed his friends and his family... all he had left now was Aelita and his fellow Lyoko Warriors.
Hershel nodded with gratitude to the teen's kind words before they went back to looking out over the land together, each of them enjoying how it looked as the sun started to set in the distance.
The farmer and the teen saw some heads of cattle grazing out in one of the farm's more-distant fields, and they saw that the chickens were beginning to head back into their coups so they could roost. They saw how the leaves in the trees and the tips of the wheat in the fields swayed in the light breeze in the air. They felt the sensation of the cool air and they could make out the scents of mother nature...
It was all so peaceful here... and Hershel hoped it would remain that way even past his dying day.
"My daughters were spared. I'm grateful to God for that." Hershel told the teen, then he spoke again. "These people here? All we've got left is each other... I'm just hoping we can ride out this storm in peace 'til there's a cure..."
Jeremie cringed a bit as the memories of what happened at the Center for Disease Control came back in his mind. He was so sure that everyone was going to die in that damned underground room thanks to Dr. Jenner...
... but they didn't. They didn't, and now they all were back out in the chaotic and dangerous world once more.
And look where that led Aelita...
"My group and I was at the CDC near Atlanta. It's, uh... 'gone' now. An explosion. There's no cure." Jeremie told the farmer with a glum expression on his face.
"I don't believe that." Hershel smiled reassuringly to the teen. "When AIDS came along, everyone panicked. One boy in our town came down with it, and some parents pulled their children from school so they didn't have to sit in the same room." he explained. After all, AIDS was once an assured death years ago just like how the current outbreak was now.
"This is a whole different thing from AIDS, Hershel..." Jeremie stated as a retort to the elderly man. AIDS is bad, but it never destroyed a global civilization before.
"That's what we always say, right? 'This one's different.'" Hershel shrugged as he assumed the outside world wasn't as bad as it seems to the teen, and that the walker virus would ultimately be contained sooner or later. If only he knew...
"This one actually is different this time..." Jeremie insisted. "A lot of people out there are dead. Entire cities have been wiped out and I just don't see this being fixed in the near future..." the teen's voice was riddled with dejection by the end, and he soon looked back out to the farmlands.
Hershel saw the points that Jeremie was making about the outbreak. The elderly man was also fully aware that the walker virus was gravely serious, but at the same time he was completely convinced that one day it would go the way of viruses such as smallpox: extinct.
If not today, then it would be extinct tomorrow. If not tomorrow, then it would be the next day. If not the next day, then the day after that. So on and so forth until one day the outbreak would simply be gone and never to return.
"Jeremie, mankind's been fighting plagues from the start." Hershel began. "We get our behinds kicked for a while but then we bounce back. This is just nature correcting herself and restoring some balance again." that was the farmer's view on the situation, and he saw no need for it to change anytime soon.
The blond teen listened to Hershel's view but he didn't dare reply to it. He just couldn't.
Hershel had every right to think what he wanted about the situation and Jeremie was glad to hear an opposing view, but since nature 'restoring some balance' had to involve so much of his family and friends and countless others losing their lives to the undead, along with Aelita getting shot, then he'd rather have no part in it.
The two were taken out of their discussion when they suddenly noticed something coming out of the treeline on the other end of one of the farmlands. After that, something else also came out of the trees.
Hershel and Jeremie recognized them as Maggie and Carley's horses in the distance. Hershel handed Jeremie a pair of binoculars so he could look closer, and to his relief he saw that Maggie and Carley had found Chase since he was on the back of Maggie's horse.
To his astonishment and some much-needed joy, Jeremie also noticed Yumi Ishiyama was on the back of Carley's.
They found Rick's group...? When?
As that question crossed his mind, a far more horrifying one followed: did they find the others before Aelita got shot or after...?
Hershel went back inside the house to let Dylan and Anne know that Maggie and Carley had returned with Chase and another one of their friends. Jeremie set the binoculars down on a patio table before he hesitantly walked down the front steps so he could meet with Chase and Yumi.
Maggie and Carley soon arrived at the farmhouse and they helped Chase and Yumi down off of their horses. The two teens hurried as quick as they could toward the house.
As they approached the front porch, Yumi froze once she noticed Jeremie. Although this was the first time she had seen him in days and although she was happy for their long-overdue reunion, she was mortified to see his normally-blue turtleneck was covered in dried blood... Aelita's dried blood.
That poor girl's condition was much worse than Yumi ever feared...
Jeremie himself didn't hesitate in approaching Yumi and pulling her in for a silent but very tight hug. Yumi was still a bit taken aback by the blood but she didn't take too long in returning the hug.
As bad as everything looked right now, Yumi just tried to take solace in the fact that the Lyoko Warriors had finally been reunited. She just hoped they wouldn't have lost one of their own in the process...
Chase got off of Nelly just as Dylan and Anne came hurrying out the front door to greet them all. The teen looked very anxious and nervous as he got off the horse, unsure as to what to even think anymore.
Unfortunately, Chase saw Jeremie and Yumi break their hug: revealing all of the dried blood on Jeremie's shirt. Chase's eyes widened with horror and realization as Dylan and Anne approached them.
So much blood... so much blood...
As the teens reunited in his front yard, Hershel glanced at them out one of the living room windows. He gave them their respect and privacy, but he just wanted an indication as to who exactly had come to his farm today.
Hershel could tell that Anne and Dylan were astonished to see that Japanese-looking girl just like how Jeremie was, although he couldn't quite understand why. But then the old man's heart broke when he saw Dylan and Chase approach each other, both clearly trying and failing to hold it all together.
He watched as the two brothers proceeded to break down into sobs and pull each other in for a hug to comfort each other. After that came a hug between Jeremie and Chase, both meeting with each other just like how Chase did with Dylan only moments before.
It didn't take long for Chase and Yumi, who Hershel dubbed the "Asian girl" for now since he simply didn't know her name yet, to hurry toward the house with the others following behind them. Clearly they were going to see that poor girl laying in his guest bed right now...
Wordlessly, Hershel opened the door for them as they approached but the two teens paid no attention towards him due to their mutual concern.
"Guest bedroom. Third door down." Hershel politely informed the two teens as he pointed at the guest bedroom door down the hall.
Chase and Yumi nodded in gratitude to Hershel and they hurried for the guest bedroom while their friends caught up to them.
After hurrying down the hall, Yumi opened the door and the two looked inside. Both teens froze with horror when they saw Aelita...
Aelita was laying unconscious on the bed, the IV line in her arm and the bloody bandages on her gunshot wound. On the medical table sitting against the bed was a bunch of medical instruments which were still red with the pinkette's blood...
Yumi couldn't hold back her tears as she went to Aelita's bedside, falling to her knees next to it. She took one of Aelita's hands and held it tightly in hers.
Likewise, Chase simply stumbled at a slow pace into the room as if he couldn't actually believe what he was seeing. But once he got to the other side of the bed, Chase collapsed down onto his knees and took Aelita's other hand into his.
As Yumi sobbed near them, Chase turned to look at the others with wide eyes.
"... what the fuck happened ...?" Chase managed to ask through his shock and grief.
Anne stepped forward with a sad expression on her face.
"We were out looking for Yumi and the others in Rick's group." Anne began to explain to him, her tone as gentle as she could manage. "We saw a dder and Aelita approached it, but there was a hunter on the other side of it who was already aiming with a rifle."
"Aelita was already on the ground and Anne had a chunk of flesh missing from her arm before anyone knew what was happening." Dylan added, sadly looking down toward the unconscious pinkette. "The hunter, 'Otis'... he just didn't see her when he fired..."
So everything Carley told them was true... This was just a case of Aelita standing at the wrong place at the worst time...
Chase shook his head with disbelief and he struggled to keep his anguish under lock and key. He was failing. Tears began to roll down both sides of his face once more as he gave a light squeeze to Aelita's hand to let her know that her brother was there for her.
Yumi was in a similar state. Her equally-sized anger at the moment blinded her to the reality of what had actually happened, and now she just couldn't believe that someone could've been so careless...
"Where's the man who shot her...?" Yumi frowned at her friends as she wiped away her tears.
"He's getting ready to head out and find the equipment Hershel needs to operate on us." Anne informed her. What Otis did was wrong, but in her mind there was no doubt at all that what he did was an accident, and she's already forgiven him for the wound he gave her.
Hesitantly, Anne added: "He really did seem remorseful about what happened..."
"I don't give a fuck if he's remorseful or not, Anne." Chase coldly dismissed with a sudden frown as he kept watching over his unconscious sister.
Anne's face fell when she heard how suddenly cold her best friend was towards her. She understood the reason for it - his sister had been shot after all, and her life was still very much on the balance here...
... but it still hurt her a bit nevertheless.
Yumi gave one last squeeze to Aelita's hand before she stood up from her chair so Jeremie could have his seat back. Jeremie thanked Yumi and then he sat back down and resumed holding Aelita's hand while Chase continued to hold the other one.
But then the most remarkable thing happened... Some of Aelita's fingers slightly twitched a bit before her hands weakly began to squeeze down on Chase and Jeremie's, causing the boys eyes and everyone else's eyes to widen.
The group saw that Aelita was still completely unconscious... but it seemed that, despite her unconsciousness, she was at least somewhat aware that she wasn't alone in this ordeal.
Jeremie and Chase both looked up at each other with astonishment, and both of them softly smiled with relief at each other.
Maybe... just maybe... Aelita was actually going to be okay...