Bad Blood (Gabentine Fic)

The Gallows

Whispers were coming from the crowd surrounding the gallows as three people were placed in chairs on the stage, sitting in front of the nooses. The people recognized one of the figures as one of their four leaders of Richmond, David. The other two leaders, Joan and Clint, made their way onto the stage and Joan held up one hand to silence the crowd as she began to speak.

"Fellow members of Richmond we are here before you today because this community has been contaminated with corruption, by one of our very own leaders nonetheless. David has been doing horrendous things without our consent to others, killing every person in Prescott and setting it ablaze. He also drug Max through our community by a rope around his neck by Max's very own truck and then going to torture him outside of Richmond."

Shouts of anger came from the crowd at hearing what David had done, causing the three Garcia's to wake up and see that they woke up in the middle of some sort of trial. They struggled against their binding and David looked around to see the crowds glare to be set on him.

"Joan, what the hell is this? Let me and my family go!"

Joan pulled a gun from her waistband and pointed it at David.

"No, it is time you are held accountable for your actions David! The people of Richmond want justice for all the crimes you've committed and we're going to give it to them."

The crowd shouted their agreement with Joan's words and David focused his glare on the crowd.

"I burned down Prescott because they were trying to cut out on the trades we were doing and they killed Fern for just trying to negotiate with them! I killed Max because he killed my very own daughter by stabbing her in the throat with his knife and then made my son kill his sister after she turned! Mariana was just fucking 14 years old and the sweetest little girl you would ever meet!"

Joan could see that the crowd was beginning to sympathize with David's actions and began to grow irritated. She motioned for Lonnie and Badger to put Javi and Kate in their nooses, causing David to start thrashing about.

"NO! YOU BITCH! KILL ME NOT THEM!"

Joan laughed at David's shouting and whistled. Clint came onto the stage with Dr. Lingard and were dragging someone up on stage with the rest of them with a bag over their head. However, as Lingard passed by David he whispered quickly to him before Joan could see it.

"Clementine has a plan, don't panic."

David was removed from his spot in front of the noose and was replaced by the other masked captive. Lonnie tied the noose around the bagged head of the masked person before removing it, revealing a heavily bruised Gabe.

"GABE! NO!"

Gabe looked around to his surroundings and seen that his uncle and step-mom were in the same position as he was. David exploded at seeing his son now in the noose and Joan pistol -whipped the back of his head to calm him down.

"Now, killing you would not make you see the error of your ways but killing your family in front of you definitely would. I'm sorry it has to be this way, David, but every action has a consequence."

David could only watch through unfocused eyes as his son tried calling out to him for help. Javi and Kate were now struggling against the rope that was tied tightly around their necks, trying to break loose and save one another. The crowd had slowly started protesting when David explained his reasoning for his actions, but now they were full on rioting and trying to climb on stage to help David and his family. Joan fired off a round to try and make the crowd settle but that did nothing so she did something that made everyone stop moving.

Joan took aim and fired a bullet straight through Dr. Lingard's head, the blood spattering onto Clint and making him vomit to the side. Lonnie bolted from the stage and ran into the crowd somewhere to get away from the scene. Before anyone could do anything, a truck came driving through the gate with a herd of walkers behind it and began honking its horn. That was all it took as the crowd started freaking out and running around, trying to get away from the swarming walkers. Joan moved towards the lever that would ultimately kill three of the Garcia's and went to pull it when another shot rang out, making Joan slump to the floor of the stage. Clint held a smoking pistol in his shaking hand and Gabe had to shout at him to snap out of it.

"HEY! GET US OUT OF THESE DAMNED THINGS!"

Clint hurriedly cut the rope the Garcia's had around their necks and hands before helping David up as well. David finally regained his vision and pushed aside the intense headache he got from the hit Joan delivered to him. He went to check on his family as a horn honked once again, causing the five of them to look at Clementine who was still driving around in the truck.

"Come on! Get the lead out of your asses and let's go!"

"CLEMENTINE! LOOK OUT!"

Clementine looked back and seen that she was heading straight for a cement wall and could only brace herself as the truck slammed into it. The five of them ran to her and dodged the oncoming walkers, somehow getting split up from each other in the process. Kate and David ran to a broken down bus and stood on top of it, the other three ran towards Clementine's truck. Clint was the first to make it to the truck and opened the driver's door, only to be attacked by a walker and have his throat ripped out. Gabe grabbed the gun from Clint and shot the walker before shooting the now dead Clint.

"HEY, OVER HERE!"

Gabe and Javi looked over to see severely hurt Clementine starting to get trapped by walkers near a gas tanker.

"Javi, go! I'm right behind you!"

That was all Javi needed to hear as he bolted towards the girl he had yet to meet formally. Javi picked up a crow bar that was laying on the ground and began swinging at the walkers surrounding the girl. He helped her up and put her arm over his shoulder before looking back to see that they were trapped in. Javi looked around and seen Gabe waving from the truck, hollering at Javi to go into the alley to his right. Javi ran into it with the girl and Gabe was starting to climb down from the truck and escape with them before a noise from the back caught his attention.

"Clemmy?"

Gabe sees a small boy crawl out from where he was hiding under covers in the backseat and swears lowly to himself, but shuts up as he sees more walkers getting closer to the truck.

"Hey, buddy. Clementine asked me to take you with me and we can go meet her, okay? We gotta hurry before the monsters get too close."

At the mention of monsters, the kid bolts from his hiding spot and latches onto Gabe. Gabe places the boy on his back and starts looking around for any sign of David, Javi, Kate, or even Clementine, but finds no one. The kid starts to hit on Gabe's shoulder as the walkers are getting close to them and Gabe makes a split decision to start running through the opening he spots, thanking whoever is listening as he spots a relatively decent looking car. He places the kid in the front and slides over the hood before locking the doors and starts searching for keys.

"Kid, look for the keys! We need the keys to start the car and get away from the monsters!"

They both frantically look for the keys before the kid pulls them from the glove department. Gabe shouts in victory and starts up the car before putting the seatbelt on the kid and peeling out of Richmond, barely making it out before an explosion comes from inside the community. Gabe can only pray that everyone made it out alive and gives the kid a fake reassuring smile.

"We're going to be okay and we're going to find your mom and my family. What's your name?"

"AJ, what's yours?"

"Gabriel, but you can call me Gabe. Now, let's go find our family AJ."