4 Episode 4: Under Siege

A young Dex awakens in confusion in the back of the survivor van, he looks around and before he can speak a man walks over to him, "Whoa easy there champ, we found you just outside city limits, what were you doing in the city... how the hell did you survive the bombings?" ex is reminded of the trauma that he faced back in LA, he sees the death all over again, the gunshots, the walkers, the screams and explosions, the man sees how traumatised he was, "It's okay, you don't have to say anything, I understand it completely.... I'm John, that guy across from me is Josh, the lady driving is Mia, and the guy riding passenger is Luis... Oh and forgot to mention, that drunk lying down to your side is Rachel, she's passed out half the time. What's your name?" Dex wants to say his name but doesn't want to tell these people his real name so he goes by the name his friends used to call him, "D... Dex."

John hands him a water and says to him, "Well hi Dex, nice to meet ya, we live in this van, it ain't much but we were a travelling group of friends before all of this, seeing all the sights, meeting all kind of people, eating all kinds of food... but ya know how it all ended." Josh sees that he wasn't with his parents and chooses not to ask about them because he didn't want to start their new friendship with possibly sensitive questions. Josh holds the map that they had of the tri state area so he can give Mia directions to the nearest pit stop, "Okay we got a few options here, we either take the next exit or keep going, risk running out of gas and go to the next clear stop, your call M." Mia sees the next exit off in the distance and sees a blood trail, a big one leading into it, she looks at the gas meter and sees that there is a quarter tank, "Judging off that blood trail, our best bet is to go where the dead probably aren't, those things scare the hell outta me." Luis sits there cleaning his gun, "Ya know, I heard that there were communities sprouting up from the military, this news comes from all across the country, I hear states like North Carolina, Virginia, Nebraska, Texas, Washington, and Oregon have quite a few, maybe we can go to one." John leans in and says, "We've been through a few military safe zones, they are either abandoned or gone, lets just ride the open road and see where we end up."

The group keeps on driving, Mia takes a right onto the next clean pit stop and they all load out of the van, Luis fills the van up while Josh and Mia loot the nearby building. "So Mia, 10 bucks says this place is full of supplies we can use." Mia chuckles a bit and says, "Make it 20" Josh laughs a little, and they enter. They look around and a walker comes out and goes over to them, Josh pulls his knife out and before he could go for a knife kill, Mia shoots it once in the neck and again in the head, "Knife kill woulda been better, those things are attracted to noise." Mia searches through some bins while saying, "Yeah well I don't intend to be here long enough to test your theory." Josh opens a heavy crate and then looks behind it to see a bunch of loot, "Hey Mia, you got 20 dollars?" Mia hurries over and sees the supplies, "Shit, you have always been the gambler in the group anyway." She gives him 20 dollars and they begin to carry as much as they can carry out to the van.

They load the van up and all get in, a bunch of walkers begin to come out of the woods due to the gunshot, as they drive off, Dex looks through the back window at the walkers roaming around, he is haunted by the sound of walkers and he doesn't believe any of that was happening.

Wilmington(Present):

Dex walks out of the house, early in the morning, he walks down the street and sees people sitting outside, some picking the garden of it's crops, two people walking a dog, he enjoys the sight of peace in the community. He walks some more and walks to the main garden area, he sees Sarah picking tomatoes, Dex walks up to her, "How's your morning been?" Sarah looks up and stops picking, she stands up and says, "I was woken up early in the morning to you mumbling about the death and destruction, is this a recurring thing?" Dex looks down and thinks back to LA, "Sometimes it happens, I'm haunted by the experiences I had that day, the day the world collapsed." Sarah sees the pain he felt just thinking about it, "I was on a family trip when the world fell apart, it was me, my two older siblings, Will, and our parents, we were travelling to Miami from Atlanta and we were caught in the middle of an evacuation on our way into the city, long story short, we were in a wreck, parents were dead, so were my siblings, all mangled up, horrified I got out, then I saw Will and helped him out, we were broken after that, we witnessed horrors that monsters can't even handle to bare witness to." Dex looks at her and says, "I'm sorry that this happened to you Sarah, I guess that just means that we all have seen things and done things that we would much rather not have to witness ever again." Before Sarah can respond a man goes running by with a bow and several arrows, "What the hell is going on."

Sarah and Dex begin to make a run for the main gate, when they make it, they see Hailey on the watchtower with Lamar, Jack, the pair climb the ladder to get a better look. "They just came outta nowhere, one moment I was just watching the woods and the next the Raiders have us surrounded, these people are like god damn ninjas." Dex takes what Lamar just said and knows right away what is happening, "I've heard rumors about groups like this holding communities under siege until they either get sick or starve and then they either submit or die." Hailey watches as their leader and his right hand man, Jared ride up to the front gate, Hailey begins by saying, "What the hell do you assholes want, I've never seen anybody be so dickish enough to start shit before coffee, I haven't even started brewing." The leader walks up a bit and says, "Your comedic comments amuse nobody, you guys have crossed the line quite a few times recently, that town you raided, that was our stash in that store, protected by the dead, you spy on us and killed some of my men, now we'll sit here and wait until you either hand your food and weapons or die, or give us the leader of this fine establishment so we can punish them for letting these things happen and we'll leave with no other payment required, your call."

Hailey climbs down the ladder with the others, "What do we do?" Hailey thinks for a bit, "I'm not going to let you all suffer, I've spilt blood, sweat, tears on building this place and keeping it going, I'm not about to be the one to let it crumble." Jack stops her from going to the front gate, "It was that bravery you showed, the will to do what nobody else was willing to do, you got us here and it's about time that we repay you Hailey.... You aren't about to die because some asshole in uniform came by barking orders." Hailey looks at him and says, "Look I'm sorry Jack, but I gotta do this." Lamar looks at her and says, "We built this place up together, your my best friend, it'll take an army to stop you after you set your mind to something, but when we stand together, we are stronger than any army, and we aren't gonna let you go out there and pay for everything, we are gonna find another way." Dex walks up to them and says, "We'll find a way, you trusted us from the moment we came here, you have this crazy ability to see through all the dirt and blood, you know when people are good or not and we need that right now more than ever. Stay, we'll find a way."

A woman came up to them with the list of weapons that they had, "I think I have an idea, that herd in town hack there is close enough to see a flare coming their way, I say we wait until nightfall and fire a couple flares, play it off as a misfire and boom, they get distracted and we attack, they'll have a war on two fronts and have to leave." Hailey looks at the list, "We have the fire power and the flares, if we time it just right then that may work, Jenna go and get the supplies, and take Jim with you." Hailey turns to Jack and says, "Fine, but if shit starts to go wrong, I'm going to them, I won't let good people die when there are easier solutions." Jack feels relieved at her decision and they all walk away. Jenna and Jim enter the weapons storage and start looking for the flares that they were supposed to grab. "Go check the back, I'll check here, they gotta be somewhere." Jim responds with, "We need to better organize this place." Jenna chuckles a bit and finds the box of flares and a flare gun by it, "FOUND IT!" She grabs the stuff, and Jim takes some rifles and ammo, Jenna snatches some arrows and bows and they head out, they run over to the big table in the center of town and place the stuff on the table.

Hailey, Sarah, Dex, Lamar, Jack, Jenna, and Jim sit at the table with people running around, getting stuff ready. "Okay, if we're gonna do this then we need to do it right, the boss is gonna want to come into here with some Raiders, either that or he'll run off home to let his soldiers deal with it, we gotta kill the people he brings in except for one and force them to vouch for us when the flares go off, then kill them, after that we need to have one hell of a night because we're leaving in the morning." Jenna looks at the big map on the table and says, "Where to?" Jack points at the town dividing the Compound and Wilmington, "There's an old outpost that we used to use when out on runs, the place can hold on 65 of us, we spend our bought time there to come up with a plan to finish this, once we do this, there won't be any coming back." Dex looks at it and says, "We gather fighters up and we march to them and use their weakness that we discovered to take them out, then we win and whatever happens from there is for us to decide." Hailey nods and says as she rolls the map up, "Then let's get started, this is it people, there is no coming back from this." They all split up and begin working on their evac plan and setup and then the Raiders knock on the gate and shout, "HEY ASSHOLES, TIME FOR OUR ORIENTATION"

Jim runs over to the front gate and opens the gate for them, "What." A Raider walks in and goes up to him, "So I guess you all decided to give your shit over to us, good, we wanna make sure you do it and do it right." Jim closes the gate behind them and they all begin to walk down the street, he looks at Sarah and nods a little bit, the Raiders go up to the guns, the lead Raider who was put in charge of the siege orders them to raid the community, Hailey sees this and on her radio she tells the people to allow them to take whatever, the Raiders loot houses and trash the streets, they purposely destroy stuff for the fun of it. Lamar and Jack walk around, making sure that everything is going according to plan, the day goes on with the Raiders raiding everything. Mid day comes by quickly and the big group of Raiders take the food and supplies that they raided outside and load it all into wagons and send them back to base, they leave 15 Raiders behind to keep watch on the inside. Hailey sees them there and Jenna asks when they begin the assault, Hailey looks at the Raiders and says, "When the sun gets low enough, we take them out, lure them to the flares and kill them with knives." Dex walks up and says to Hailey, "Not much of our supplies made it to safety in the hidden cellar, but a lot of guns did, that should last us enough time to take them all out and liberate the Compound" Sarah looks at him and nods, she walks off.

Day quickly gets closer to night as the sun slowly sets, it's about dinner for the community and they hold off on it so they don't blow their cover. Dex looks at his watch and watches time fly by, eventually it gets dark enough for the flares to be seen clearly, he walks down the street and Sarah follows, eventually Jack does and then Jenna and Jim and some others, they equally match the Raiders who were sitting around the big table in the middle, they hold knives to their throats, the 5 Raiders left sitting in the community held their hands up slowly. Dex looks at them and says, "You sick bastards have done enough, here's the rundown of our plan, we kill you, chase your buddies off with the walkers from town and then we go to the police station in town and take the compound out, sound like a good plan?" one Raider looks at him and says, "Can't wait for the big man to kill you all slowly." Dex chuckles a bit and says, "What like this?" he slits one's throat and the others follow except Sarah, they hold that one hostage. They all walk down the street with the man and they stop by the flares, Sarah looks at him and says to him, "When we fire those two flares, you're gonna say that it was a misfire and blame your dead friends and we'll consider your survival" Out of fear the man agrees, she nods at Lamar and Jim who load the flares, they aim at the moon and fire a flare from each gun. Dex looks at his watch and begins counting on it for an estimate arrival of walkers, he and Sarah walk to the main gate and Sarah holds a gun to the mans head on the side, "Tell 'em" the man looks at the Raiders and says, "T...That was a misfire, my.. It was their fault... the others I mean, they were dicking around and misfired, you all can stay calm." he turns to Sarah and before he can ask if he is free Dex knocks him out, "A promise is a promise, we'll tie him to the wall, Jack mentioned that this was the one in charge od "body placement" on the walls at the Compound, so we should give a taste of his own medicine." Sarah nods and two people take the man away and tie his hands together.

Hailey, Dex, Sarah, Lamar, Jenna, Jack, Jim sit by the table and eventually hear a scream, they all run to the main gate and then Hailey orders people to arm themselves, guns and bows are passed out. They spread out, Dex and Sarah climb on top of the main watch tower and shoot at the Raiders, gun fire is exchanged, more walkers come by, the Raiders eventually order a retreat, after some hesitation, they leave, the walker count goes up slowly but it is working. The survivors fire at them and don't stop until they begin running, out of nowhere a flaming arrow flies in and hits a house, it is set on fire, Dex and Sarah get low behind the wall. "Hailey, there are flaming arrows as a farewell gift from them, we need to evac right the hell now!!" The pair climbs down the tower and run for the supplies and help load them into the wagon, "We don't have the ammo to stick around, there is a small stash at the police station." Hailey nods and steps on the table, "I need you all to get everyone together and load up, when the back end is clear enough we take the back roads to the town and we stay at the police station, hurry, go go go!" People gather all they can and they all load up, they don't hesitate, more flaming arrows come in and fire spreads, the place is on fire but it keeps walkers distracted as both sides flee, they ride fast.

The Road to Town:

They begin to ride down the street, people look back at the smoke that is rising from their home, people cry, people are hurt and their spirits are broken but they push forward. Dex and Sarah look back, Dex then says, "It's almost the end, when we get this done, who knows where our stories will take us next." Sarah looks at it and doesn't speak, she just watches as they ride down the back roads, Hailey doesn't look back but sees the firey orange reflecting back on them, she hears the fire sound of the place she built throughout all those years, she tries not to think about it but she can't resist. The end of their Raider conflict is near and they know it'll come at a devastating cost.

END

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