5 Episode 5: War Is Near
2 years on the road a young Dex wakes up at a small camp, the group van has a few modifications on it, he gets up and walks over to the camp fire where Josh hands him a bowl of rabbit stew, "Here Dex, eat up, you haven't eaten in a few days." Dex begins to eat, "Thanks Josh." John and Mia come back from a morning hunt empty handed, Luis and Rachel walk up, "So how'd the hunt go?" Mia looks at them and says to them, "We gotta go soon, we've picked everything within a pretty far radius and there is no sign of life anywhere, we pack today and leave by nightfall." Rachel looks down and runs over to Dex and Josh, "Hey, J and D, we may not be staying any longer, we got nothing left here for us, we need to go by nightfall, get packing." Dex stands up, downs the rest of his soop and runs over to his bag and starts packing, he puts water, toys, comics, his knife away in it and then he hears the sound of leaves rustling, he turns and says in a frightened way, "Josh? John? Mia? Rachel? Is anyone there?" Then a walker comes out of nowhere, he is quick to grab his knife, he sees it snapping its jaws together, it keeps going at him with no stopping, Dex gets in the van and uses the added height to jump over to the walker, he stabs it through the neck and they both fall, Dex gets up quickly, and takes a rock. He smashes it's head repeatedly, after it's head was nothing but mush Mia grabs him quickly and pulls him away.
"Dex, it's okay, you got it, it's me Mia, your safe." She begins to comfort Dex, Mia was a parent figure for Dex, he looked up to her for many things, he walks over to the corpse and takes his knife and puts it in his bag. Mia walks up to him and asks, "Are you okay Dex?" Dex looks at her and can't resist any longer, he then says to her, "Every night I see nothing but the dead, in my dreams I see the city that night, the dead everywhere, people dying, the flames, it was a nightmare and I lost my family in that chaos and I may never get to see them again and I can't get it out of my head." He says while crying it all out, Mia hugs Dex and says to him, "You gotta quit thinking of the past, we all lost something that night, we may never get any of that back but we just gotta keep on going, they wouldn't want you giving up, don't fail them, just keep on fighting, in the end, everything happens for a reason, you just have to find out what that is and use that to push yourself forward." Dex and Mia sit there for a bit, a few hours later the camp is all packed up, they all load up into the van and begin their drive, they pass up the sign leading into Oregon, they are just a roaming band of survivors searching for a purpose.
Police Station(Present):
The survivors finish up with their setup inside the police station, Dex and Sarah take first watch, they sit on lawn chairs on the roof of the building, they look at the smoke off in the distance. "Since our fun little run together is nearing it's end, what do you think you'll end up after all of this?" Sarah says after taking a sip of her water, Dex looks at the few walker stragglers and says to her, "Honestly I don't know, guess I'll go where ever the road takes me, I was once with this group that lived in this buffed out van, they were the closest thing to family for the first 2 years... Same thing happened to them that happens to everyone... But I kinda miss that on the move life style, I think I'll head out West." Sarah looks at her bottle for a bit and says, "I think when I am back with Will, we'll travel somewhere away from all of this and get away from all of this stuff, maybe go somewhere peaceful and quiet and live out life without the loss we have delt with." Dex looks off at the smoke and says to her, "Good luck with that Sarah, you deserve a happy ending after all that's happened." Sarah looks at him and says calmly, "Ya know it doesn't just have to be us, there's always room for you, I've grown to like you a bit more and you are the person I trust the most right now, you are the closest thing to family right now, I don't think I can lose that." Dex looks down and Sarah reaches over and grabs his hand.
Dex looks at Sarah and says, "Maybe, I just can't get attached to people, I failed that already but I don't want to stay long enough to see you all die, I can't handle losing family again." Sarah looks over at the smoke one more time and then at Dex and says to him, "I understand, let me know if you change your mind, we should probably get some sleep right now, tomorrow is a big day." Sarah walks to a cell and Dex follows, they get into the bunk bed and close their eyes, upstairs on the roof, Jack and Lamar took their position on watch duty. "Damn, it's really gone man, after all those years, it's gone, it feels like a limb was ripped off." Jack looks at it and says, "Yeahhh, it feels like we lost everything back there, at least everyone got out safely, tomorrow we get our revenge and we begin to rebuild, for a safer and better future." Lamar looks at the smoke and then looks down at his bag and pulls a comic out and begins to read it. Jack watches the dead night sky as a few walkers roam the streets, there is a silence in the air, he puts a blanket on and goes to sleep. Lamar reads his book for much of the night to get his mind off of everything that happened.
Hailey sits at the front desk cleaning her pistol that she put up and swore never to have to use. She wipes it clean and looks at the engraving on it, H.T. She puts it down on the desk after cleaning it and sits back in the chair, Jenna, and Jim watch the front door, they sit across each other by the doors. Jenna looks at Jim's broken watch and says, "Did that watch break during the attack?" Jim looks at it and then back at Jenna, "No, it broke a while back, I just kept wearing it because it was a birthday present from a close friend, they're gone now, it's one of the few things I have left of the old world, it brings back happy memories in these troubling times." Jenna looks down at the floor and leans her head on the pillow. The rest of the night people struggle with sleeping after what happened to Wilmington, they wait in fear because they know what is going to go down the next day.
Morning:
Sarah opens her eyes slowly, she rubs them and climbs out of bed, she sees that Dex already woke up, she leaves the cell and greets Jack as he it eating some food. "Hey Jack, where'd Dex run off to?" Jack looks over at the door and says, "He left about an hour ago with Lamar to scout out the best way to attack, should be back in a few hours." Sarah thanks him for telling her where they went, she goes over and sits with Hailey and helps her get weapons sorted out and ready. Jenna and Jim sit at a table with some people discussing the best route to the Compound.
Meanwhile in town Dex and Lamar walk down the road that leads to the compound, they turn into the woods and end up by the scouting spot that Jack uses. They looks beyond the fence for the spots to hit, Lamar then says, "Okay, so I have an idea, we'll hit all the main gates to this campus, when we get in, we lead the herd from Wilmington into the Compound, but we do it on the East side so we have enough time to evac the innocent people, You and Jack will hit up their science building while the rest of us battle it out, but you gotta make it quick because we don't have a whole lot of ammo so make it count and get the weapons we may need to fight these assholes, simple as that." Dex looks around and then says to Lamar, "That sounds pretty good, lets get a bit closer to get a better look at everything." They get up and begin their small journey around the parameter, they manage to get past snipers due to trees being in the way.
They eventually make it to the back side of the place and see the workers, Dex looks at the fence and says, "There's 6 people watching this side, the explosion, and walkers should by us enough time to cut the fence and get these people to safety, after that, we can go full force on these people and when it's all over, regroup at the police station to discuss the next course of action, this won't take them all out but it sure as hell will end them." Lamar finishes writing this all down and Dex finishes mapping their plan out, they quickly start to head back the long way, they walk for a bit and end up near the town and they get back on the main road. They walk down the main road for a bit and end up at the outskirts of town, they stop and then proceed into the town and they begin to head back to the police station.
They have a rather calm and peaceful journey, they make it there pretty easily and are let in by Jenna and Jim. Sarah runs over to greet Dex, Hailey greets the two of them and they walk in, Hailey grabs Jack and they head into the meeting room, they all sit down at the big table there and lay the map out. "Okay so what did you find out?" Dex and Lamar give the rundown and they decide to split everyone up into groups, Hailey thinks for a second and then says, "Group A will be the main group, I'll lead them, group B will be Dex, Jack and you guys will deal with the big bang, Lamar, you're the lead on group C and you will deal with walkers, Sarah you lead group D on getting the workers out, if we can pull this off then we are good to go, it took a bit but it seems that at least 90% of the people here want to fight. We ride out soon, I sent a squad out an hour ago to retrieve the herd, we don't have much time so get ready, this is it people, don't fail, we are all counting on each other." They all get up and prepare, they are quick to do so, they all leave on foot and the militia wait outside the police station, they see the herd and the crew and they begin their journey.
They walk slowly down the street, armed with weapons and ammo, they are prepared and ready for their revenge. They walk down the street for a little bit and end up passing some old, run down buildings, they avoid as many walkers as possible to add them to the herd. They are pretty quiet on their journey, the groups begin to form eventually, people get into formation quickly. Groups A-D are ready and begin to split off into different paths when they reach the end of the road, they tune their radios for communication.
They all travel in their separate ways and don't stop for anything, the herd is led through there forest, Dex and Jack run ahead with the herd group. Sarah holds out the cloth that Will left at the farm, she says to herself quietly, "I'm coming." Hailey holsters her gun after loading it, they are all ready for war and are ready to fight and know that loss is expected but they don't let that bring them down at all. Jenna and Jim stay back to watch over those who stayed and to take care of the place, they set up traps and other defenses to protect them in case of an attack.
Dex looks at his mask as he once again puts it on his face, he proceeds to put his hood up, he gets his machete ready. They all walk together, knowing that what is about to happen will be massive. Dex attaches the necklace that belonged to Mia to his bag, he tightens his gloves and gets ready to fight. Dex looks at the sky and says, "You gotta quit thinking of the past, we all lost something that night, we may never get any of that back but we just gotta keep on going, they wouldn't want you giving up, don't fail them, just keep on fighting, in the end, everything happens for a reason, you just have to find out what that is and use that to push yourself forward." He remembers Mia and everyone else who has mentored him in the past as he goes in with the mindset that he may be seeing them again soon. They all make it to the Compound and have it surrounded, the herd is still on it's way to buy some time. Hailey looks at the Raider leader through the front gate and says to him, "It's over, you're screwed, give up asshole, you've taken enough." The Boss looks at her with a smile and says, "I love it when they put up a fight... PUT 'EM DOWN LIKE THE ANIMALS THEY ARE!!!" Guns are drawn on all sides of the fight, no bullets fired, one side is waiting for the other to shoot first, Dex and Jack manage to cut their way into the fence and see the science building. Lamar leads the herd group, they eventually see the compound off in the distance, Sarah runs to the workers fence and looks inside to try and find Will. Everyone is in position. Everyone is ready. The fight that they have been waiting for is here. War is here.
END
