The Walking Dead: Return to Paradise Part Two

Chapter Seventeen: Welcome To Fercreek

Five days later

"She took me off my guard with disappointment
I got sucked inside of her apartment
She's got dried-up flowers, flaky skin
A beaded necklace and a bottle of gin
She's a nightmare hippy girl
With her skinny fingers fondlin' my world
She's a whimsical, tragical beauty
Self-conscious and a little bit moody..."

Violet's singing trailed off and she made a face that suggested she was in deep thought.
The illusion was soon shattered when she made a 'pfft' sound with her mouth.

"That's all I know. Honestly I'm surprised I remember that much, the last time I heard it was from Sophie's CD player early on. Before the batteries died, that thing was so cool to have around." Violet said.

"Sounds like it. When all this started, the only thing I had to keep entertained was some chalk and paper." Clem replied.

She smiled at the memory. The motor inn may not have been the best place to stay, and she had still seen her fair share of horrors there, but there was an odd fondness she felt for it.
Maybe it was because of Lee. It had been a while since she had thought about him.
When she was little, she remembered hoping that Lee had gone to heaven.
At this point in her life though, she doubted that such a place existed. But it was a nice thought, Lee relaxing somewhere, able to reconcile with his family.
Clem realised she had zoned out when she raised her head and noticed Violet looking at her with an awestruck expression.

"What?" Clem asked, puzzled.

Violet didn't say a word, she just pointed down the road.
Maybe a mile up the horizon, there was a whole town. Red brick buildings with architecture reminiscent of the fifties lined the Main Street.
A mess of abandoned cars were scattered around the town, each in various states of rusting away.
Neither of them had seen anything resembling infrastructure for such a long time.

"Holy fuck..." Violet eloquently stated.

"Yep... It looks abandoned, maybe we can stay in one of those buildings tonight." Clem suggested.

"Oh god, yes. Anything's better than sleeping in the cold again."

The walk to the edge of town was filled with an air of excited optimism. Clem and Violet both made intentionally unrealistic predictions about what they would find in the town. They knew there was no chance that it would be that good, but after all they'd been through, pretending felt nice.
They stopped in front of the enormous sign on the side of the road outside town.
'Welcome to Fercreek' was emblazoned on it in rounded font, superimposed over an idillic painting of the town, full of smiling people on a sunny day.
Painted over all that, was a newer message.
A warning in faded black lettering: 'stay out'
Beneath that were nine tally marks.

"Well that's ominous as fuck." Violet remarked dryly.

"At least it's to the point." Clem joked back, trying to alleviate the tension.

She fished the shotgun out of her backpack and readied it, switching off the safety.

"Keep on your guard. That message looked old, but I'm not taking any chances."

Violet nodded and took the revolver out of her waistband.
The pair walked down the Main Street. Fercreek apparently hadn't seen much of the snow that they had gotten back in the woods. There were a few patches of it on the ground here or there, but that was all.
The wind whistled between the empty alleyways. The scraps of a weathered flag flapped in the wind above them on a roof. 
The quiet would have been welcoming, had it not been for the warning on the sign. Instead, it was eerie. It gave Clem chills.
Violet tapped her on the arm and pointed ahead.