The Dead Studios: Season 8

Chapter 4: A Walk in the Woods

     Jax opened his eyes, seeing the trees above him. The leaves, softly blowing in the wind. He leaned up as he looked around at the rest of the group. They were all sound asleep- except he didn't see Malcolm anywhere. He rubbed his eyes and stood up, creeping out of the small camp into the woods. He looked around as the cool breeze made him shiver. He noticed rustling out in a bush and he pulled his knife out. He slowly crept over to it as he went down to stab it.

"IT'S ME! IT'S ME!" Malcolm yelled as Jax pulled away. "Holy shit- I thought I was a goner for a second."

"Sorry... I didn't know." Jax said as he put his knife away. "What were you doing?"

"Oh- I always come out here to hunt in the morning, except the rabbit I saw just ran off now. Too bad." Malcolm said putting his gun away.

"You were gonna shoot it?" Jax asked.

"Well it's got a silencer." Malcolm said walking past him.

"Hey- yesterday you said we would talk more about the whole, war situation. Is now a good time?" Jax asked.

Malcolm sighed. "Let's go for a walk." He said as they walked through the trail in the woods.

"Caroline told me a lot- but not much about the war.." Jax said.

"Well- I know she told you about that 'breach' that happened in our old building. That was just my cover up. Now you've gotta promise you don't say anything to her. Got it?" Malcolm said facing Jax.

"Yeah, of course." Jax said.

"The breach- Jeffery's group did that." Malcolm said. "The dead didn't, break in, Jeffery put them in there. And I kept it a secret from Caroline because I know how hard it would've been for her. She would've gone crazy, go on a mission to kill Jeffery. But that's over now, there's no reason for her to know. Jeffery is dead- the war should be over, right? Well, not exactly. Someone close to Jeffery has taken charge, some girl named... Zekera? I don't know how close she was to Jeffery- but she's taken charge, and wants revenge." Malcolm said.

"So- this is... kind of my fault, isn't it." Jax said.

"Well, the hard part is over, your friend finished that for us. We just gotta find where the rest of Jeffery's group is, then we can finish them off for good." Malcolm said.

"Well first. I have a few questions. Number one, why did you go to war with Jeffery in the first place? And two, did you ever try to make peace with him??" Jax said confused.

Malcolm sighed. "We ran into Jeffery while on a run. It was after he filled our building with walkers. He set us all down- in a line, and killed... Caroline's boyfriend in cold blood. With that god damn fucking baseball bat." Malcolm said closing his eyes. "He was a good man. He didn't deserve to die." 

"I'm so sorry- Malcolm." Jax said. "Caroline didn't tell me about that."

"Yeah well- she's got her reasons." Malcolm said opening his eyes rubbing away a small tear.

"Jeffery did the same thing to my group- except... he killed three of us." Jax said.

"Holy shit- three? I'm surprised one of you didn't just get up and kill him there." Malcolm said.

"One of us tried- but he was killed before he could do anything." Jax said remembering that day.

"I'm sorry, Jax." Malcolm said. "I guess you can understand why we didn't try to make peace. We all wanted revenge- and we're gonna get it."

"Yeah... I have an idea on where to start looking for Zekera's group." Jax said.

"You do?" Malcolm said.

Jax nodded and the two of them walked back to the hidden camp as they saw everyone awake.

"Mornin' everyone." Malcolm said sitting down on a small tree stump.

"So what's the plan for today?" Caroline asked.

"Jax claims he has an idea on where to start looking for Zekera's group." Malcolm said.

"You do?" Caroline said.

Jax nodded as he saw Malcolm pull out a map of Vermont. He put his finger down to the city of Burlington.

"We are here." Malcolm said. "Show us where you think they might be." He said turning it to Jax.

Jax looked around the map as he noticed the highways going out of Burlington. He placed his finger down on the map. "Here."