Open up, Survivors Inside

Chapter 19

"Holy shit, someone else not from Crawford," an older black man with a beard mumbled. The old balding man had a pistol on his side, but he made no attempt at pulling it out.

"We got separated from our group," Lee explained.

"Your friend isn't looking too good," The balding man noted, "He can't be from Crawford, what with that cane and all."

"I never heard of that place," Lee said.

The balding man motioned for Lee to follow, and he did so, "Set him here, I was a doctor before." As Lee did, the balding man paused, "Is that...a scarred walker bite?"

"He's immune," Lee said, "But it made his ankle weaker."

"When was the last time he had anything to drink?"

"I'm...not sure, we only found fresh water at the house our group is holding up at."

"We have no ivs here, so we'll have to wake him up," the man then looked up, "Name's Vernon."

"Lee, this is Puffer," Lee replied as a brown haired woman helped keep Puffer saw up. Vernon grabbed a quarter full bottle of water and splashed some in Puffer's face, causing Lee to raise an eyebrow.

"Best I can do," Vernon said.

A second splash seemed to do the trick, but chaos almost broke out when Puffer woke up in fight or flight mode, nearly falling off the table. "Easy!" The woman keeping Puffer up said.

"Puffer! Hey, hey!" Lee started, grabbing Puffer's arm. That seemed to do the trick because as soon as Puffer managed to get a tight, and slightly painful, grip on Lee, his breathing calmed.

"I...I lived...? I-I'm alive?!" Puffer gulped.

"Thanks to your friend here," Vernon said, giving Puffer the water bottle, "Take this, you need it." Puffer did so, chugging the water in seconds. Of course, there wasn't much to drink, but still.

"What is this Crawford you mentioned?" Lee asked, and Puffer perked up at the conversation.

"A community that only lets the fit and strong live," The brown haired woman huffed.

"We were a part of it once, until they started weeding out the sick and the old so their perfect survivor society wouldn't be threatened," Vernon added.

"You barely look fifty," Puffer mumbled.

"So you're sick?" Lee asked.

"Were sick, we're all members of a cancer survivors group that used to meet at the hospital," Vernon said, "We're in remission, but that wasn't good enough for Crawford. They'd already rounded up five of us before the rest of us managed to hole up and hide from them sown here."

"How did you know we weren't from Crawford?" Lee asked.

"Because of him," Vernon said as he nodded his head to Puffer, "A weak ankle would have gotten him thrown out."

"What about a non-working ankle...?" Puffer asked, which got Lee's attention.

It also got Vernon's, who walked over. He moved to Puffer's ankle and pressed down with his finger, applying what should be pailful pressure. But Puffer felt no pain. He couldn't even feel the finger, only see it. "That's not good, I wouldn't recommend traveling," Vernon spoke up after seeing the result of his test.

"Fuck that! I need to get back to our group!" Puffer protested.

"I can carry him just fine," Lee said, "But we do need to get back, any chance you could help us find our way back? Those sewers are like a damn maze."

"Two of our own are sick and need constant care," Vernon frowned, "and I'm the only doctor here."

"We need to get back to our people, back to Clementine," Lee said, and Vernon paused.

"The streets might not be safe, is that a good idea?" The brown haired woman questioned.

Puffer did not have the energy for an argument to break out, "Just bring everyone there, fuck it." When Lee looked a bit worried by this, Puffer shook his head, "I'm sick of all of this. I'm sick of it being a them versus us situation. It's like Chuck said, you're either alive or dead."

There was a pause as Vernon looked back to his group. They seemed skeptical, but it was clear living in their current hideaway was getting to them. Vernon turned back and gave a small nod, "Might be for the best. Crawford could discover us here at any moment. You should meet them if we're joining with you. This here is Brie. And over there is Boyd, Clive, and Joyce."

As Lee helped Puffer up onto his back, a vision of Chuck's corpse flashed in Puffer's mind, causing him to shake a bit. He already knew that was going to haunt him for a long time. "We'll come back for the supplies next door later," Brie said as the group began moving, "Last thing we need is Crawford sniffing us out."

"What does Crawford do to people that they don't deem fit?" Puffer asked.

"Depends," The man with the afro, Clive, answered, "Either expels them from the community...or kills them, tossing their bodies out before they become walkers."

"Christ..." Puffer mumbled, "The kids are safe, right?"

"Anyone under fourteen is thrown out," Clive replied.

Puffer felt his blood boil at this, and he already despised Crawford. "They are sick people," Brie grumbled. As soon as the way out was revealed, Puffer had to hold on for dear life as Lee climbed up. Once they got up, however, it was smooth walking from there as the others managed to climb up just fine.

By the time Lee head led the way to the place everyone has taken shelter, the sun was beginning to go down. As Lee opened the door, he looked around. "Clementine? Clem!" Lee called out.

A noise got Puffer's attention and he looked over to see a blonde haired stranger searching through the cabinets. "The fuck?" Puffer said, causing the woman to turn  to him.

"Oh, you brought company," she said to Lee.

"He was always with us," Lee said as he helped Puffer down and had him lean on the nearby bar, "He's our-"

"PUFFER'S BACK!!" Puffer looked to the yelling and saw Duck race over, tackling him into a hug, "I knew you'd come back!"

Puffer chuckled a bit at Duck's confidence, something Puffer himself didn't have when he really needed it. Some more footsteps could be heard and it wasn't long before Travis and Ben showed up, with Christa walking over, "Thank god your back, Omid's fever is low for now," She paused when she saw Puffer, "And thank god you made it back too."

"I thought you were gone..." Ben mumbled quietly, "I thought it was my fault..."

"Who are they?" Travis asked, warily looking at Vernon's group.

"Some new friends, thank them and Lee for saving my life," Puffer said.

"You mentioned someone with a fever?" Vernon questioned Christa.

"His leg wound is infected, and I don't know how many antibiotics left," Christa explained.

"Let me take a look," Vernon said, "I've dealt with plenty of patients in the past, this won't be any different." Christa leas the way while the other cancer survivors headed into the living room, mainly so Joyce could rest.

"So, who's your leader?" Molly asked, "Or are your people just winging it?"

"I'd like to know that too," Brie said as Lee helped Puffer onto a chair.

"You already saved him," Lee said to Brie, catching her and the others off guard, "Puffer's practically been in charge for a week now. We used to have two leaders."

"I got sick of their bitching at each other," Puffer added.

"Then let me be the one to say thank you for allowing us to stay here," Joyce softly said, and Puffer gave a nod. He wasn't heartless, and he wasn't going to leave these people to be sniffed out by Crawford.