Reality Strikes

/Usual Warning. This is my first FanFic, so expect problems with grammar, Pacing, character personality, and more. Enjoy!\

Year 3392 October 23

The crunch of glass echoed from under my feet as we traversed through the ruined street just in front of the rundown drugstore. Cracks of all kinds had started taking over the once neatly cemented street, turning it into a tripping hazard of incomprehensible proportion.

 Military utilities lay scattered around, buried in rubble, with the literal Helicopter being most prominent thanks to it being buried neck-deep in the drugstore roof; a Humvee of some kind sat just below it, covered in large chunks of concrete, glass, and scrap of unknown origin.

 Burned cars lay scattered to the street side, probably pushed out of the way by the military that rolled through a bit after we fled to the inn.

 Slowly walking up, we stopped by the drugstore corner and peeked around, looking for any possible sign that walkers were near. When we found none, a sigh of relief escaped us both.

 "Well, it looks like this is our lucky day."

 Giving Kenny a look of skepticism, I add, "Don't get too excited now; just because we can't see them doesn't mean they are not there."

 He responded with a look that screamed annoyance. "Lee, please don't jinx it."

 "Oh, but why not?" I asked with a slight grin.

 The look on his face after I said that was one of the best reactions I've gotten from someone so far. "God. I think you should stay away from Carley for a little while."

 "Hey, come on, she's not that bad."

 Kenny seemed to find this funny as he chuckled. "Sure, not bad. Let's ignore her corruption taking hold of you then."

 "Okay, now you're being overdramatic."

 He clicked his teeth. "Lee, I can't be overdramatic when stating the actions needed to fix your humor."

 Lightheartedly scoffing at this, I used my free hand to cover my forehead and lean back slightly to give the impression that the comment hurt me. "How dare you; I'll have you know, I have several people who like my humor."

 "Who, the dead rats you find in the toilet?"

 A sharp stake shot through my chest at his sarcasm.

Doing my best to speak while covering the metaphorical hole left in my ego, I continued, "Come on, man, that was unnecessary."

 "You mean, was necessary."

I nearly toppled to the ground because of that.

 "Okay, please stop."

"Fine, but your humor still sucks."

 We continued around the corner while I quietly cursed him for attacking me like that.

 A sudden grunt of pain ripped me from my cursing. Looking over, I saw Kenny slightly hunched while quietly clutching at his side.

 "You good Kenny?"

It took him a moment to respond. 

 "Ya, just the gunshot wound acting up."

 Something most of us had neglected the night we left the farm was the inch or so hole left in Kenny's side, courtesy of a rifle bullet.

 "You sure."

 With another pained grunt, I watched him stand straight. 

 "As sure as someone with a hole in their side could be."

 I kept my gaze on him a little longer before looking away and shaking my head. "Well, come on then, let's get inside and scavenge whatever's left."

 "Let's hope there's a lot." Was Kenny's humorous response.

Another shake of my head and we made our way over to the crashed simi, intending to climb the ladder on its side to gain access to the back door of the drugstore.

 Said action was going fine until one of the bolts keeping the ladder up broke, sending half the leader dangling off the side. Luckily, Kenny had gotten up before it did; unluckily, I did not.

 "Shit, I don't think she'll hold."

"I wonder why?" I said with clear humor lining my tone.

 "Not the time, Lee. We need to find another way for you to climb up."

 "Ya ya, give me a minute and I'll try to find something."

"Okay, but try to be quick about it. I don't want to know what happens when our troubles become more audible."

 Piping down, we both went quiet as I scavenged for a way up. Trying the ground first, I knelt to see if there was a gap I could crawl through, and while there was one, it was far too small for me to crawl under.

 Looking toward the head of the simi, I saw it was buried in a building, making it almost impossible to go through the cab.

 Another thought would have me checking the gap between the head and trailer, but that was another bust; the gap was too small, and the other side was blocked with rubble.

 Clicking my teeth, I put Super Dragon's Breath on my back and started sifting through the visual options. Climbing up the side of the drugstore was possible, but it wasn't something I was ready to risk my life for, not to mention I wasn't that good at climbing the last time I checked.

 If Kenny didn't have a hole in his side, I'm sure he could've pulled me up with little effort; sadly, that wasn't the case.

A similar case could be made for the ladder barely bolted to the trailer.

 I continued to look around before my eyes landed on the Humvee. More specifically, the winch attached to its front. If it still worked, I could use it to do a few things that would help me get past the trailer. If, it worked.

 Tossing a lazy glance over my shoulder, I asked. "Think that would work?"

It didn't take long before Kenny responded. "As long as the drum isn't shot and still has enough power to retract, it should be usable."

 "Good to know."

 Without another word, I yanked the winch hook free and started pulling; soon after, the drum, as Kenny called it, started rotating, losing most of the tension it previously held.

 With enough time and manageable patience, I dragged the hook to the underside of the trailer, where I latched it to its frame.

 Standing straight again, I returned to the Humvee's cab, trying to find the switch in control of the winch.

 "Lillys not doing so good."

 A snicker of dismay was part of the response given. "Killing someone's dad in front of them is bound to do some damage; I just wish it wasn't so much..."

 Kenny went silent.

A sudden switch made itself known on the rim of the Humvee's windshield. Figuring this was the one controlling the winch, I flicked it.

 A loud screech of metal was what I got in return as the Humvee dragged itself toward the trailer. Not a few seconds later, it was logged below the neck, letting me know it was time to turn the thing off.

 Hopping onto the hood, I looked at Kenny's extended hand, then at him.

 "You sure you're up for this?"

 He chuckled. "Not at all, but I'd rather tear a few stitches than be stuck here any longer."

 I chuckled at this as well. "Nice to know you're sensible."

 With that, I took his hand, doing my best to aid him in hoisting me up. Sadly, the extra effort wasn't enough as what looked to be a very painful grunt escaped him, leading to my inevitable drop.

 With my inevitable fall came the horrifyingly loud crack of the Humvee's windshield as my head rebounded off of it.

 Every movement and bodily function had halted in fear of making any more noise. The only exception to that was my eyes as I watched Kenny scan the surroundings with slow turns; the moment he shook his head was the moment I caught the breath previously knocked out of me.

 As much as I wanted to curse Kenny and blame him for this mishap, the fact I let him try it in the first place placed most fault on me, so with lighter breaths, I uttered a quiet question. 

 "You good?"

 Kenny, seemingly done with groaning in pain, called back. "Not really honestly; breaking a stitch hurts a lot more than you'd expect."

 I scoffed. "What made you think otherwise?"

 "If I tell, you have to promise not to laugh."

I was suddenly regretting asking. "You know what, forget I asked."

 Our little conversation was interrupted by screams of terror.

 With little to no time, I was up on my feet again, scanning the crack-riddled street, before eventually spotting the one screaming and running down the street, followed by a small hoard of walkers.

 Almost immediately after the screaming woman's arrival, she tripped over one of the many cracks, falling face-first into the cement. 

 Unlucky for both her and us, her screams drew out the walkers lying dormant in the surrounding buildings, and we both watched as more started trickling out like a swarm of ants.

 My focus was interrupted by Kenny as he called out to me. Looking back up at him, I saw he had his rifle ready and trained on what looked to be the woman's head, probably trying to go for a mercy kill. 

 But with hardened nerves, I quietly shook my head to deny his attempt. Directing a nod to the direction of the drugstore's back door, I expressed my want to use her as bait while we got the job done.

 After less than a few moments of hesitation, a nod of confirmation sealed the woman's fate as Kenny again reached down with hand outstretched.

 When I went to give him a look of hesitation, He greeted me with the hardened face of a survivor willing to do anything to survive. After seeing that, it didn't take but a second for me to grasp his arm, to which he started pulling, pushing past the pain from the now-reopened wound.

 After a final heave, I was up on the trailer, where we wasted no time listening or even glancing back at the still-screaming woman. Taking advantage of the screams, I jumped down while Kenny did his best to do the same while not tearing his wound open further.

 Making a mad dash to the door, we got in before any possible walker managed to get the jump on us. Uncaring of any noise, the door slammed shut.

 "Okay, get to looking for anything edible; find anything, just shove it in your bag and keep looking."

 A clean nod was what I got in response.

 Not wanting to waste the precious time given to us by the woman's screams, I ignored the walker sitting in the cockpit of the crashed helicopter and dashed around the ruins, picking up small snack items still left in the store and shoving them in my bag.

 But soon, the grace period ended as the woman's screams ceased. Adding onto the even further unluckiness of this was that our rushed movements stirred up enough vibrations to unlogged a chunk of concrete dangling from the ceiling, sending it crashing down with a loud crack.

 "Shit! Lee, we need to go!"

I tossed one more glance around before nodding. "Let's get the fuck out of here."

 With that, we both took off to the back of the store, aiming to squeeze through the hole we spotted when we came in. 

 The pounding of wood and shattering of glass was the key sign telling us to move our asses along. Jumping over the concrete blocking our way to the hole, Kenny got through, but I was shoved to the ground by the door previously unseen being ripped off its hinges.

 With a lot of effort, I managed to keep the door from crushing me with the walker's added weight. It wasn't long before Kenny took the risk of helping me lift the door off myself.

 With a bit more effort from both of us, we managed to get it off, giving us a clear shot at our exit; unfortunately for me, luck was not on my side as I was once again blocked by a walker, the same one I thought to be locked in the helicopter's cockpit.

 Pulling SDB off my back, I didn't hesitate to put a shell in its head. 

 Continuing, we squeezed through the hole and slipped away, leaving the current and future walkers drawn to the gunshot behind.

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 It was a bit later when the motel broke into our vision, and from Kenny's reaction to the one on watch, I could tell he was not happy, but I kept silent on this, unwilling to get Kenny going.

 Upon opening the gate, my eyes instantly started scanning around the lot, looking for a little girl able to lift stuff with her mind.

 A vivid memory had me chuckling.

 Eventually, my eyes landed on her awed form as she stared at her walkie-talkie, eyes glowing with literal stars. It often made me wonder why everyone but me was so oblivious to her magical nature, but I usually chalk it up to said magical nature.

 Walking over, I knelt beside her oddly oblivious form and poked her. The jump and yelp I got in return were something I would've died to get a recording of; Unfortunately, I'm nowhere near fast enough to record it, and the camera died a few days ago.

 Her head almost turned into a swivel as I watched it turn hurriedly. When her cautiously hostile eyes eventually landed on me, a brief smile appeared before swiftly turning into a frown as she puffed up her cheeks, crossed her arms, and turned away.

 Yet another time, I regretted not having the camera.

 "Come on, sweetpea, don't be like that."

 Her cheeks puffed a bit more, giving her the look of a croaking frog.

 Gaining a devious smile, I decided it best to voice my thoughts.

 "You know, maybe you're not a magical fairy." I could see her body slightly turn at this, as she seemed more interested in what I was saying.

 "Maybe, just maybe, you're a magical toad that grants wishes."

 Her reaction wasn't immediate, as I watched as she analyzed what I said before the satisfying realization sunk in, her face quickly switching from a frog to a tomato.

 With a face as red as paint, she un-puffed her cheeks and started lightly smacking me on the head; luckily, they were unenhanced, so they felt like a gentle breeze instead of the solid hits she was probably going for.

 Determined to embarrass her more, I started mocking her punches with light lines, each ranging from 'Oh no, my bones.' to 'I beg you, please stop, it hurts so much.' dragging out the word 'much' as much as humanly possible.

 It was like a little circus, except Clem was the only performer.

 Her little hits suddenly stopped, making me pause my thoughts; when I went to open my eyes, I met with the definitely enhanced fist of one humiliated Clementine, connecting straight to my left shoulder.

 Knowing it wouldn't break anything, yet knowing it would hurt like hell, I braced to turn with it, unwilling to bear the full brunt of her mighty fist.

 A second later, I was quietly trying to rebuild her ego with apologies and words of praise while rubbing my now very much bruised shoulder.

 "Wow, you're right, those are some nice stickers."

The quiet smile and small hums of appreciation were signs telling me it was working; after a bit longer, she finally turned to meet my eyes.

 "I'm glad you're okay."

 I smiled. "I am too sweetpea."

She seemed to find that light joke funny as she started cackling.

 A second later, I started noticing the light blinks coming from Clem's shoulder; curious as to which color it was this time, I took a peak, and to my surprise, instead of seeing the usual red or green, I saw amber.

 Out of curiosity to learn the meaning of that color, I gently tapped her shoulder to ask if she knew about it.

 Sadly, just as I was about to ask, I was distracted by Kenny's voice.

"Lee, Lilly's calling."

 With a sigh, I turned back to Clementine. "Okay, sweetpea, I need to chat with Lilly, so why don't you cook me up one of your fancy drawings until I get back?"

 By the look on her face, I could tell she was disappointed. 

 "Hey now, no moping. I'll be back before you know it."

 With that, and one last look at the blinking amber, I turned and made my way over to Lilly's door, Kenny in toe.

 After racking my knuckles across the wood, the door opened, revealing Lilly on the other side.

 I couldn't speak a word as Kenny started.

 "Looks like we have the kid on watch again." A less-than-stellar joke, accompanied by a sarcastic laugh, later, and we moved on to what we got from the drugstore.

 "If I'm being honest, that's probably the last bit of food we'll find in the city without taking life-threatening risks."

 At my words, she seemed to pause and think about something. "You're right. But we still need food, so if you're up for it, we could start working on the other side of town and see if there's anything over there. We could get enough to last the winter if we get lucky."

 That was not the right thing to say, especially with Kenny standing beside me.

 "Winter?! You expect us to stay here for winter?!"

 Her only reaction to this was to sigh.

"Yes, Kenny, we're staying here for winter."

 Once again, it was not the right thing to say.

"You're fucking insane! We'll freeze our asses off and die before we even begin to prepare for winter!"

 She scoffed, "And piling into an RV with you two, after what you did to my Dad. Is so appealing."

 He continued. "Even so, it's still our best bet."

"I'll do what's best for Clementine, and so far, with the food supply and constant life-threatening trips, the best bet is the RV."

 She looked slightly betrayed at my admission but continued anyway. "It's suicide out there!"

 Kenny was quick to bite back. "And we'll die in here."

 She chuckled. "You're right; you'd try to kill one of us in our sleep."

I saw this as going too far, so I spoke up. "Lilly, that's going too far."

 Her face turned into a deep frown. "Go to hell, Lee."

Getting a bit ticked off by this myself, I bit back. "I probably will, but I'll be damned if I don't drag you down there with me."

 Our three-way squabble drew the attention of both Katjaa and Carley, as Carley's voice rang out the clearest to me, yet ignored by the other two.

 "It's common for them to be arguing. But you, Lee?" She giggled. "Now that's unexpected."

 Tunning out Kenny and Lilly for a moment, I responded to Carley. "Never said I wasn't up to try new things, now did I?"

 With someone actually able to appreciate most of my jokes now here, I got a honeyed laugh in return. 

 Tired of the conversation, I tuned it out and focused solely on Carley. "Get any more shells done while I was gone?"

 She nearly snorted. "What do I look like a wizard? No, those will take time to complete."

 I shrugged and continued, "Shame, I got to try one out today, and I got to say, they were pretty powerful; blew a Walker head clean off."

 That caught her interest if the spark in her eye was anything to go by.

 Unfortunately, that interest would have to be put on hold for later as I got dragged back into the argument I left Kenny and Lilly, too, and not in a good spot either.

 "So you guys just let her die?"

"Lee made the right call; we probably wouldn't have gotten so much if it hadn't been for him."

 "That doesn't matter! What you let happen was inhuman! You used the poor girl as literal bait!"

 Kenny did not take well to essentially calling the trip into town worthless. "The fuck you mean didn't matter!?"

 "God Kenny! That's not what I fucking meant!"

 "Ken, I think what she's trying to say is what you let happen wasn't right."

Deciding to defend Kenny from what I told him to do, I spoke up. "Kenny was going to help her by giving a mercy kill, but I stopped him."

 Thanks to my poor choice of words, that sounded way worse than it actually was, and the looks on Katjaa and Lilly's faces spoke that in volumes.

 "Let me rephrase that; she had been bitten multiple times before we could even react; add onto the fact that Kenny had just torn his stitches back open a few seconds prior, and we suddenly required more time to get into the drugstore. So I stopped Kenny from shooting the girl and thought it best to make use of all the noise she was making to mask our entrance and exit; unfortunately only able to use it for the first part, having a bit more trouble for the last one."

 The two previously horrified girls stayed silent, giving me more time to continue and maybe even convince Lilly that leaving was the best option. "Point is; we probably wouldn't be standing here if it hadn't been for that decision."

 Kenny decided to add to that. "Lee's right; we keep putting our lives on the line, over and over again, and for what? Some meager scraps that wouldn't last us thirty minutes? And that's not to mention that shit we have to deal with when we do go out for more; If we keep going like this, we'll starve before winter.

 "We all appreciate it, Ken."

"If anything, you should be thanking us for not shooting that girl." I saw the light squeeze Kenny gave Katjaa to let her know he heard her.

 "Look, Macon and its people aren't savable. It's not a town. It's full of walkers, and the people who were left are dying and wandering out onto the streets."

 "It's hell on earth and it's coming this way."

 That was the breaking point for Lilly. "ITS NOT GOING TO BE EASIER OUT ON THE ROAD!!!"

 With an unusually calm voice, Kenny questioned. "And how would you know?"

 Lilly continued with her shouts. "WHAT I KNOW!? I know you are not above murder! And I know someone has been stealing our supplies! That's right, STEALING! And I know the list of people I can trust here is getting smaller every day!"

 "Now, everybody, get out!"

No one said a word as everyone left Lilly's room, only stopping when we were a few feet away from her door.

 Lifting my gaze, I was met with three pairs of waiting eyes, all looking to see what I had to say.

 I sighed, "She'll get over it."

 Kenny clicked his teeth, "She's riling everyone up otherwise."

He contemplated on something before following up. "But she's right on one thing; none of this is getting any easier."

 He didn't stick around as he and Katjaa turned and walked away, with Katjaa shooting me an odd glance before catching up with Kenny.

 The silence didn't last long because Carley was quick to fill it.

 "That was eventful."

 I could hear the humor in her tone and decided to play along.

"You call that eventful?"

 She snickered. "What might you mean?"

A small chuckle gave away my obvious excitement. "Let's just say I did some digging in my past time."

 Her eyes started twinkling at the admission, and I could see her thoughts turning with so many unhinged and degenerate ideas of what it could've been.

 Eventually, she snapped out of whatever fantasy she was in and asked, "And what kind of digging are we talking about?"

 I shook my head in denial. "Sorry, but that's for you to find out."

Her little grin turned sneaky as it became thinner. "Well then. Going to give this gal a hint?" She said while walking two fingers up my shirt.

 Ignoring her blatant and shameless teasing, I continued. "And where would be the fun in that?"

 She huffed. "Fine. But you have to find something as well."

 Noting her tone shift, I switched mine, becoming less playful and more keen. "And what do I need to find?"

 It took less than a second to follow up. "Find out what Lilly meant when she said someone was stealing our supplies."

 I nodded. "You don't need to ask, as I already planned to talk to her about it."

 Her serious gaze lingered on me briefly before falling back into her naturally playful one. "Well then, since you are going to be busy with whatever you have planned, I'm going to continue making new shells, so feel free to join me any time Darling." She drew that last word out as much as possible before turning to the truck and walking away. 

 I sighed. "Some 'Magical' Feeling is telling me this day is going to go very horrible, very fast." I chuckled at how I used the word Magical before walking off, sparing a few glances at what little remained of our original group. I walked back to Lilly's room, intent on helping her with this thief problem.

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 What was once a simple drawing quickly turned into a mind dive as I entered the tri pool, the liquid filling it, taking on mixing hues as the three colors constantly clashed with each other, with amber being on the back foot, most of the time.

 The clashing colors stopped and went still the moment I stepped foot into its waters, becoming that of paint drying on a canvas.

 Strouding through the colored liquids, I halted in the middle of all three, where no color lingered, and looked down, spotting the floating form of the first.

 Thoughts drove me back, painting my amber eyes red as I gazed and remembered the camp of insects I slaughtered.

 Each crumb of memory sketched a small part of my smile full of malice.

As my nails grew longer, I reached into the unclouded depths, intending to pull the first out of the forge I threw him in and cast him red so that he may also enjoy the pain and agony others can make.

 Just as I was about to grasp him, my body froze and was quickly and swiftly overtaken by awing green, basking my once crimson eyes into beautiful emeralds and twisting the stumps of the still-forming wings into lines that borrowed through my arms and legs; coming to a stop when a line or two looped around my torso.

 My mind, once rampaging with thoughts of violence and death, now headed nothing, as my thoughts stormed into a cube of deceit and lies, memories not of my own making up most of the cubed structure.

 Continuing my motion, I gripped the first's tattered shirt and started pulling him up, intent on casting him in the most beautiful green so that he may also recognize the value of life and how unfair it could be.

 But, yet again, my body froze, and the emerald green swapped with honeyed amber. In doing this, the lines running through my body faded, and the flesh it previously burrowed through filled itself in, becoming whole again.

 In place of the lines came a small gem, barely the size of an acorn. Yet its stunning honeyed hue shined through the abyss surrounding the pool of color.

 Thoughts once filled with anger, regret, hate, sorrow, joy, happiness, betrayal, love, and more became nothing but a myth, as the only thing I could feel was peace. My mind held nothing but tranquility.

 Pulling the first out of the transparent liquid, I looked at his calm and peaceful face, briefly wondering what he was dreaming of before tossing him into the section filled with amber, watching as he sunk into his new role.

 I waited and waited and waited until eventually, bubbles appeared on the honeyed mana, soon followed by the newly clothed first.

 His calm eyes stared at the mana's surface, watching it with the same tranquil face layering mine.

 After a few more seconds, his eyes rose to meet mine. Nothing was said between us, as we merely observed each other, but with my lack of care, I wasn't surprised when he stood at his full height, becoming a tall, well-built creature.

 With slow steps, I watched him walk over, stopping just before the transparent liquid. His dark, honeyed eyes dragged themselves all over me before linking back with my eyes and kneeling.

 After that, my mind became a blur. The conversation I was supposedly having never reached my ears. Yet despite that, a keyword broke through the blur and presented itself as 'Saisho.'

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 Barley-conscious amber eyes groggily flapped open, revealing the roof of the RV Kenny liked to talk about, its engine roaring with vigor as the windows showed trees zooming by.

 With a little effort, I lifted myself off the shoulder I was sleeping on and looked at the one it belonged to, revealing the tired yet kind eyes of Lee.

 Doing a sweep, I saw Carley, Ben, and Lilly sitting at the back. Frustration filled Lilly's face; the same skittishness painted Ben's, and cold anger colored Carley's.

 Rubbing my eyes a few more times, I turned back to Lee and noticed his gaze and gentle smile set on me.

 "Hey, sweetpea. Sleep well?

 I nodded in mild confusion. 

"That's good..."

 After rubbing the sleep out of my eyes, I questioned. "Lee, what's going on?"

 His tired sigh was not what I wanted for an answer.

He looked to think about something before a sudden spark lit up in his eyes. "Clem, your a big girl, right?"

 I nodded without hesitation.

His smile got just a bit brighter.

 "Well then, you remember that promise I made to you when we first met?"

 Promise? What promise was he talking about?

 Not knowing what he was talking about, I shook my head.

 He chuckled. "Okay, let me put it like this. We're heading to Savannah. Meaning, we're going to look for your parents."

 My eyes went wide and my breath slightly hitched. "Oh..."