The Walking Dead: Emperor of Flames

Chapter 23: One Foot In Front of The Other

Lilly: You're in no position to make demands.

Carley: Whoa, whoa, whoa, you're just pointing fingers.

Lilly: I didn't just come up with this, I've had my suspicions.

Y/n looks to Lilly. 

Y/n: Come on, Lilly. I really doubt Carley would do that to us. I think we should all just calm down before making any rash decisions. 

Sharing his sentiment, Kenny calls back to Lilly. 

Kenny: Probably not the best time, Lilly!

Unfortunately, Lilly isn't having none of it. She's steadfast that Carley is the villain herself, or she's working with someone. As she stands in the middle of the RV's walkway, she calls up to Kenny. 

Lilly: If not now, when? Look at what just happened!

Lee: Carley's trustworthy. She's not a traitor, Lilly.

Carley smiles.

Carley: Thank you, Lee.

Lilly looks at Lee annoyed. 

Lilly: She can fight her own battles. Unless there's something going on here that implicates you both.

Carley: Don't be ridiculous.

Again, Y/n looks at Lilly and tries to get Lilly to calm down. 

Y/n: She's always been good to us, Lilly. Plus, she was kneeling like the others were. Why would the bandits make her do that if she was with them? I'm not the brightest bulb in the box, but it wouldn't make sense for them to do that to her. Right? 

Lilly: Just because she's been good for some time, doesn't mean she can't change her tune. And maybe they were only acting like they were going to kill her so we'd let our guard down. Classics like that won't work on me. 

Carley: Do you hear how crazy sound right now? 

Lilly was about to say something back to her, but Ben looks at her, still afraid. 

Ben: Like, look, maybe we should, uh, vote or something like that.

Lilly: Vote? What?

As Ben tries to explain himself, Clementine whispers to Y/n as she holds onto him. Her face close to his as she doesn't want the others to hear her talking. 

Clementine: Did you and Lee really find something outside? 

Whispering back, Y/n confirms to Clementine that they did. 

Y/n: Yeah. As I said, it was behind a grate. 

Clementine: Does that mean someone in here is a raider? 

Y/n: Not necessarily, but I...I don't know. We came across it by accident and then those jerks attacked. We didn't have enough time to whittle down a suspect, like a cop. 

Clementine: Oh...

Hearing the worry in her voice, Y/n holds Clementine closer. She looks at him with her big hazel eyes, as a little bit of her hair falls down. He moves her hair out of her face and tries to instill a bit of hope. 

Y/n: Don't worry, everything will be okay. We're all still breathing and all things considered, we got out without anyone dying. Good on us. 

Clementine: I guess so, but...we lost our home. 

Y/n: That wasn't our home, Clem. Ever hear the expression, "Home is where the heart is?"

Clementine shakes her head. 

Clementine: Uh, uh. 

Y/n: Well it means that no matter where we go, as long as we have each other we'll always be at home. And I'll always be around, so we haven't really lost anything, have we? 

Clementine: I guess not. 

As Ben finishes what he has to say to Lilly, Carley looks at her. 

Carley: We need to look at the facts. Let's calm down, we'll eat and we'll deal with it. 

Ben: Yeah, let's do that.

Carley: Okay? 

Despite wanting all of this to be over, Lee looks around at everyone in the RV until he finally lands on Lilly. Even though she's sounding a little unhinged at the moment, she's not super wrong on her stance, just on her approach. So he sides with her on this one. 

Lee: Guys, we have to act now. I know it sounds nuts, but we have a traitor here. Do you guys get that? Someone who puts their insidious shit above everyone else.

Lilly: Thank you, Lee. 

Ben: Nobody was stealing anything!

Lilly: Was it both of you?

Ben: What? 

Lilly: I've seen you two together. Was it both of you?!

Ben looks at Lilly more frightened than before as he starts to freak out. His conscious eating at him. 

Ben: Look, just let me out. I didn't do it, but I don't like this; I don't like where it's headed.

Lilly: Look me in the eyes and tell me you didn't have anything to do with it.

She starts getting closer to Ben's face, glaring at him with an obvious glare plastered on her face. However, Carley doesn't take this and tries to get her to back off of him. 

Carley: Lilly, lay off of him.

Ben: I-

Before Ben can say anything, the RV runs over a walker that gets caught beneath it. It causes the entire RV to shake as it swerves a little to the side. 

Kenny: Shit! 

Lilly: What's going on up there?

Kenny: I hit something, we gotta stop!

Lilly: Alright, well, we can deal with this now, then.

Slowly, Kenny pulls over to the side of the road as the RV comes to a stop. The darkness of night making it a little hard to see, but not too bad. Kenny looks out the window out at the night road. 

Lee: Kenny, is it safe?

Kenny: Should be. 

Lilly: Everyone out. 

Lee: Lilly...

Lilly: Out. 

Everyone but Katjaa and Duck exits the RV. Clementine and Y/n sit in the doorway to the RV as Lilly crouches down and sees the walker caught beneath the RV. It's body is mangled between the tire and another part of the RV. Kenny walks over as Lilly tells him about the damage to the RV. 

Lilly: Kenny, the RV has some surface damage but there's a walker trapped underneath.

Kenny: Goddamn it. Everyone, keep your eyes peeled.

Lilly stands back up while Kenny gets to work on getting the walker out. Though everyone's on guard.