The Walking Dead: Blood

Chapter 32: Packing Up

Chapter 32: Packing Up

Lilly had her head in her hands. She refused to look up at me when I entered the room. "You didn't come up with anything did you?"

"I came up with this." I set the bag of meds in her lap. She reached into it. "It's got a bunch of meds in it. It was in a vent on the outer wall, and there's a sign on the other one."

She spoke slowly. "Holy...sh**..."

"Yeah."

She contemplated it for a second. "Okay. We line everybody up. Everybody. Somebody is killing us. Stealing from that supply is the same as slipping into you room at night and cutting your throat while you sleep."

I opened my mouth to speak, but she continued. "What's the difference? You die. What if Clementine gets sick and we don't have what we need...?"

She began to slump down, and spotted something through a crack in the blinds. "What the hell?"

I heard a familiar raspy voice. It seemed to be the same one I heard that day Mark got shot. "You don't f***in' steal from us!"

"Who the f*** is that?!" I yelled. I peeked out the blinds myself. There were about ten to fifteen bandits carelessly firing off rounds and arrows and breaking everything. The people of our group were lined up, just as Lilly said. Only now, they all were knelt down with guns at their heads. "They have our people out there!"

"We ain't f***in' around!" One of the bandits yelled. This one had sunglasses and a red bandana on. He had a handgun pointed to Carley's head, and a crossbow pointed to Clementine's. I told myself he would be the first to die.

"What do we do? Lilly?!"

Lilly turned around and ran to the other side of the room. She grabbed her shotgun. "Stall them! They're gonna start kicking in doors any second!"

"What?"

"Just keep them talking!" She opened her window on the wall and jumped out onto the fire escape. She put a determined expression on her face. "Do whatever it takes to keep them from pulling the trigger!"

"You just made the worst mistake of your lives!" The raspy voice yelled as I opened the door slowly.

I sighed. I couldn't make myself go out into the line of fire. "Enough of this bullsh**!" I heard one of them yell. "Drew! Start putting your boot to these doors!"

I built up the will to reveal myself. I had my arms up signaling that I didn't mean to hurt anyone. I approached them slowly. "Hold it, a**hole!" The guy with the raspy voice yelled.

"Take it easy." I said calmly. I remembered what Lilly said; do whatever it takes to keep them talking. "We have more supplies. We can keep the deal going."

The guy with the raspy voice trained his gun on me. "Too late, sh**head! We ain't givin' second chances!"

"It was a mix-up!" I yelled. "We'll make it worth your while!"

He paused for a moment. "...I'm listenin'."

I kept approaching him. "We'll leave you everything. Just let us walk out of here."

"So you can try to pay us a little visit later? F*** that!" He didn't seem to notice the fact that I was inching closer to him. "All right! I've had enough of this! Drew! Take these motherf-" His words were interrupted by the hole in his head.

I looked for where the shot came from and spotted the barrel of Lilly's gun peeking out of Kenny and Katjaa's window. "F***!" The man named Drew yelled.

Kenny and Katjaa began to escape from the clutches of the bandits, taking Duck and Clementine as they went. Carley managed to escape in the confusion. She found her shotgun and fired two shots into two of the bandits. She aimed it at the last and pulled the trigger, but discovered she was out of bullets.

That last bandit managed to climb up and over the wall and summon the rest of his bandit army. They emerged from the woods carrying a great amount of guns and crossbows.

They began to push the dumpster gates out of the way and invade the motor inn. Ben started to run toward the door to his room but was blocked by a line of arrows. He was forced to take cover behind a stack of boxes.

Kenny ran over to where I was hiding, behind the RV. "We need to get out of here!" He yelled to me.

"No sh**!" I yelled back.

"Here!" He threw me a shotgun. "Cover our people while they run over to the RV!"

I took cover behind the left side of the RV and Carley took the right side. I looked out and shot one bandit. One of the bandits noticed where I was and shouted. "Go around, sh**-for-brains! He's back there!"

One of the bandits started crawling around to another cover. I stopped him in his tracks. "Now!" I yelled to Ben. "Hurry!" He quickly got up and sprinted to the RV.

"Thanks, Lee." He said, piling into the truck. "Man, you saved my a**!"

"Get inside!" I yelled at him.

Carley and I switched spots. I ran around to the right side of the RV. I noticed a walker limping out of the woods. Under all the gunfire, there must be a lot of them coming. It fell on top of one of the bandits, and I heard screaming coming from him.

"Help!" Katjaa yelled from another stack of boxes. She had Duck and Clem in her custody.

"Katjaa!" I yelled to her. "Hang on!" I turned around and shot three walkers that were approaching me. "Now!" I yelled.

Clementine sprinted toward me. She reached me and hugged me around the waist. "Lee!" She squealed.

"Clem! Get inside the RV!" The mother and son started to run towards the RV, but were blocked by a round of bullets.

"Lee!" Katjaa yelled. She directed her attention away from me for long enough that she didn't notice a walker toppling itself over her son. As fast as I could, I shot it off of him. A hole exploded in the side of its head, giving Katjaa and Duck enough time to escape to the RV.

Kenny emerged from the RV, and found her wife, bleeding lightly from the head. She had tripped and hit her head on the couch. Duck appeared not to have any injuries. "Kat!" He yelled. He helped her into the car.

I turned my gaze to Lilly, who was picking off walkers like a sniper from the balcony. "Lilly!" I yelled. "Get in the RV!"

"Screw her!" Kenny yelled, pushing himself into the truck. "Let her stay!"

I heard Kenny attempting to start the RV without much luck. I picked off a few more approaching walkers. The threat of the bandits was basically gone by now. What bandits were left had been taken by the walkers. All of a sudden I heard the engine roar to life and I scrambled up into the RV. Carley did the same. "Lilly!" I shouted. "Last chance! Get down here!"

She seemed to pause for a moment, then shrugged and jumped from the balcony. She landed on a dead walker, breaking her fall. She managed to recover quickly and pull herself into the RV with the rest of us.

Kenny revved the engine, stepped hard on the gas and blew through the walls of our shelter. It didn't matter anymore. We were never coming back here.