𝐃𝐄𝐂𝐈𝐌𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍.
[ amid the ruins; part three ]
━━━━━━━━━━
"Okay...Look, I hate to ask this, but...are we there yet?" Luke asked in a groan as they walked through the forest.
Jane chuckled, "We're not far."
Kass kept looking over at Sarah and Ollie, who still hadn't said a word to Clem, or her, worried about them. "Look, Sarah. You can get through this. The four of us will. I promise," she said to her.
"But....I'm not okay..." Sarah replied.
"Just try. Can you do that?" Clem asked her softly.
"She just needs a little time, kids. Leave her be for a bit." Jane said as Kass gave Sarah a worried look but turned away from her and walked ahead.
Kass sighed and looked at Ollie. "Ollie. It'll be okay. We still have each other and Nick is– safer up there. I know it might not seem like it right now. But it's going to be okay. I promise you," she told him, grabbing his hand and giving it a squeeze.
He looked up at her with teary blue eyes and half-heartedly smiled, squeezing her hand back.
"I don't know about this. The way Sarah is...She's gonna cause problems," Jane muttered to them.
Oliver just narrowed his eyes and glared at Jane, to which she felt and cast him a glance before awkwardly looking forward.
"What happened in there? When we went in there you were ready to help, but then...something changed," Clem asked her, confused.
"Look, I'd just...I'd seen that kind of thing before. I just didn't want to stick around for the bitter end," Jane replied before looking down at them. "Sorry, I....I don't mean to sound harsh."
"It's okay, I get it," Clem said as Kass gave her a slight nod.
"Things aren't always simple," Kassidy said, the usual frown etched onto her features.
"Just because you got her put of there today, Kass, doesn't mean you saved her. Trust me. I tried to save Jamie too. But she....gave up," Jane sighed as Luke caught up.
"I just... I can't believe it... Soon as you guys said go, I was the first one up on the roof. Like I had already made up my mind," Luke muttered.
"Luke, you can't let it eat away at you," Jane told him.
"Well, I can't forget it," Luke said as he walked up beside her, shaking his head.
"I dragged my sister across four states. And every morning, she'd say she wasn't getting up. So I'd convince her. Or push her. Or fucking carry her, if I had to. Until this time....walkers cornered us. Forced us to the roof. And then when they kept coming....I...I couldn't make her jump. Couldn't throw her. So I tried something else, I told her she could have what she wanted. And I left her there. Jumped to the next building over by myself," Jane explained and Kassidy's eyes widened in shock.
"You left your sister?" Luke asked her in disbelief.
"Jane...I'm really sorry," Clem apologized.
"Yeah, um..." Kass muttered, trailing off. How could she just leave her sister there?
Jane looked over her shoulder at them, "It killed me for a long time. But I finally realized that I'd put her on a forced march through hell, when all she really wanted was for me to let her go. Sarah was that way too..."
"Jane...." Luke said in a warning tone.
"No regard for her own safety. Or ours," Jane said.
"I hope I did the right thing," Kass muttered, running a hand over her face.
Luke looked at the teenage girl, "I think you did."
She just smiled softly, bumping his hip, a grunt sounding from behind Luke's lips.
"Come on. Let's get back to your friends," Jane said and they continued on until they made it to the park.
"Son of a bitch," Mike exclaimed in disbelief, seeing that all five of them made it back. "You found 'em!" he exclaimed.
"Yeah, I'm a little amazed myself, to tell you the truth. If it weren't for Clem, Kass, Ollie, and Jane, well...I don't know what would've happened," Luke replied as Bonnie helped Rebecca over.
"Sarah. How you doing, hon?" Rebecca asked as Sarah walked up to her. Rebecca reached out for her but she flinched. "That's okay, sweetie. Whenever you're ready. I'm just glad you're here." The woman paused, "But wait, wait. Where's Nick?" she asked as she looked around.
Ollie tensed up at her question before he started to sniffle again. A shiver ran over Kass' body as she tried not to think about it, gripping Ollie's hand.
Luke let out a sigh, "Uh, Rebecca...how about we go for a walk for a minute? Ollie, you come on along, too." He led Rebecca away as Bonnie came up to the girls.
"Let's just give 'em some space. I have something I need to talk to y'all about, too," she told them as they heard Rebecca crying over Nick and hugging Ollie.
Clem and Kass followed Bonnie as she took them over to the other side of the park before she continued, "I ain't gonna sugarcoat this. That baby's coming even faster than Rebecca's letting on. I was hoping you might know...Does Luke know anything about babies?" Bonnie asked.
"I don't know about Luke, but um, my dad is well...a dad... He could help," Kass answered, cringing at how she had worded it.
"Yeah, where is he?" Clem asked her.
Bonnie looked behind her shoulder at a white tent and pointed at it, "He went in there after you guys left. Said he needed a minute by himself. Ain't seen him since then... I don't think he's doing well," she said, shaking her head.
"We'll go in there," Kass volunteered, causing Clem to nod.
"Thank you, girls. I really do think that might be the best," Bonnie thanked them as Clem let out a deep sigh.
The girls walked into the tent, noticing Kenny just sitting on the ground, staring at the corner. He looked over his shoulder and saw them standing there before he looked away again.
"You know what it feels like to get beaten almost to death? Peaceful. It feels peaceful. It was like I was floating away, watching the whole thing happen to me. And then I woke up again, and nothin's changed. I'm still takin' a beating, every day. Duck. Katjaa. Sarita. No peace. No rest. The punches just keep coming," he said as Clem and Kass stood there and listened to him.
"Why the hell couldn't Carver have just finished me off? Obviously I ain't helping anyone by being here," he said, firmly.
Kass snapped her gaze back to him and glared, before it softened into a frown at how he must've felt.
"That's not true. You help us. All the time," Clem said to him.
"Dad, we need you," Kassidy spoke, a desperate and shaky tone in her voice.
Kenny let out a small chuckle of disbelief, "I've seen you two take care of yourselves more than any three adults put together. But, uh...thanks for sayin' that."
Clem and Kass walked up to Kenny, the latter standing on his left and Clem on his right, watching as he messed with his bandage. "Nah, don't worry yourself about this. It's nothing," Kenny spoke when he saw his daughter giving him a concerned look.
"Don't be stupid. It could be infected," she told him as she carefully lifted the bandage, cringing at his damaged eye.
"Well?" Kenny asked as Kass pulled the bandage back over his eye, but before she could reply, they heard Luke exclaim.
"Oh, shit! Does that mean what I think it does?"
The three of them stood up as Clem said, "We should see what's going on." They exited the tent and looked to see Bonnie holding Rebecca, who was doubled over.
"Are you okay? How does it feel?" Mike asked her.
"Oh, God," Ollie exclaimed, eyes widening.
"It feels wet, that's how it feels!" Rebecca snapped, irritated.
"What's going on?" Kass asked the others.
"Rebecca's water broke!" Bonnie exclaimed as Rebecca doubled over again, clenching her jaw as she tried not to scream. "We should...I don't know what we should do," she spoke, worriedly.
"Aw, fuck!" Luke exclaimed.
"Is that supposed to happen?" Clem asked the adults in concern.
"Yes. It's supposed to happen, Clem," Ollie told her in a panic, sniffing slightly.
Bonnie finally seemed to notice Kenny as she spoke up, "Kenny. Thank God. I think the baby's coming. What do we do?" She asked him as he stood there, his back turned to the others, thinking.
"All right. All right... Gimme a sec," he grumbled out.
"No way can Rebecca travel like this," Luke spoke in a shaky voice, anxiously looking around.
"He's right," Jane agreed. "She's gonna make a lotta noise. They'll be able to smell her, too. Now you've got no choice but to lock down and ride it out."
"What kind of stuff do babies need when they're being born?" Clem asked, looking around at everyone, but mostly Kenny. Everyone looked at him, not saying a word until Rebecca looked over at him. "Kenny? Come on. You gotta focus," she pleaded.
"Right, right. Sorry," the man responded as he finally turned to face the group.
"Clean water for one thing. And–" Kenny started, but Kassidy cut him off.
"Blankets!"
He looked over at her proudly, "Blankets, that's right."
"And we gotta get outta this damn cold, too," Bonnie chimed in.
"That map shows a couple of building nearby. Maybe one of them could do the trick?" Mike suggested as he pointed at the large board behind everyone.
Bonnie walked over to the side, looking at a sign that pointed to a museum. "The museum seems like it could be a good start. I'll go," she said.
"Good idea. Mike, think you could go with her?" Luke asked him.
"Sure thing," Mike agreed.
"I'll check the building by the river," Jane said, starting to head in that direction.
"Okay, then. Kenny, you, uh...you stick with Rebecca. And I will check the perimeter for walkers," Luke said before looking around. "Sarah? Sarah," he finally saw her sitting behind him, her knees pulled into her chest. "You just stay here with Rebecca and Kenny, okay?" He said as she rocked back and forth.
"Girls?" Bonnie called out to Kass and Clem. They walked over to her as she spoke, "I know it must've been hard, but thank you for talking to Kenny. I'd love for you both to give me and Mike a hand looking at the museum, but I was thinking... How do we know Jane ain't just gonna take off? Maybe you guys should go with her. Make sure she comes back."
"What do you mean by that?" Luke asked as he walked– more like limped –over to them.
"Y'know, she doesn't seem to like being around people much. And she volunteered to head off awful fast. I guess it could be nothing," Bonnie spoke.
"I trust Jane" Clem answered and Kass shrugged slightly, "I guess." The latter narrowed her eyes, "I don't like bein' 'round people much either, what's that say?"
"Me too," Luke quickly added, trying to stop Kassidy from getting upset. "Yeah, I mean, I would've never made it back without her."
"Just something to think about," Bonnie said.
"Well, Clem, if you want, you can go with Jane and I can go with Bonnie and Mike," Kass suggested as she looked over at Clem.
"Sounds like a plan," she said with a smirk.
"Wait up!" Kass heard Ollie exclaim as he ran over to Clem. "I'll come with you. We haven't had much chance to talk, aye, Clem?" she heard him say as Clem laughed.
"Okay, we're looking for warm blankets, clean water, disinfectant..." Luke said as he turned to the others.
"That all sound right?" Rebecca asked Kenny, who looked down at her with a smile, "Don't worry, everything's gonna be fine."
"All right everyone, you know what to do. Let's be fast, and let's be careful," Luke said to the others as everyone spread out.
Kass and Clem looked at each other and the latter went to hug the older girl. She held her tight and Kass whispered, "Please be careful, Clem."
"I will. You know I will," she said as the older girl looked down at her and smiled.
Ollie turned to Kass and engulfed her into a bear hug, "Hey, you... Be careful," he whispered into her ear and she shuddered at his breath before tightening the hug and pulling away.
"You too, doofus," Kass replied with a grin before kissing his cheek. "It'll be okay..." she murmured.
They pulled away from the hug and Clem smirked before she and Ollie went to follow Jane while Kass turned around, noticing Sarah. 'Let me see how she's doing first,' she thought, walking over to her. "Hey, Sarah...You know, Rebecca's starting to–"
"They were going to leave me, weren't they?" Sarah asked, still not looking at her.
"Jane didn't mean what she said. I think she gets scared, too, about what might happen," Kass said to her after a moment.
"How come...you didn't leave me?" She asked.
"Because we're friends."
"I could never be that good of a friend," she muttered. "I just want my dad," she cried.
"I know," Kass said, softly and frowned. 'I wish Mom and Duck were here, too, but...that's not gonna happen.'
"When he...when he gets here, we should all go back to the cabin. We're safe there," Sarah concluded.
"Sarah... Your dad...you know he isn't gonna be coming, right?" Kassidy asked. "Sarah?" But she didn't answer again.
"Hey. I think that's all she can take for now. She'll be alright," Rebecca walked over to her and she nodded.
"Okay, I guess I'll go help Bonnie and Mike," Kass muttered to herself and headed toward the museum. She walked up to the building to see a few dead walkers in the front.
"Hey Kassidy!" Mike greeted as she walked into the building.
"I figured you woulda went with Jane," Bonnie said.
"Clem, Ollie, and I decided that it would be faster if we split up, so she's with Jane right now. I came here to see if you guys needed help."
"Just give me ten more minutes to look around," Mike said.
"He doesn't want to go back empty-handed."
"What? I just wanna help," Mike responded and they turned to look around the museum for any kind of supplies.
Kass walked up to an old cannon and found a coat laying in front of it. "Hey! Look at this!" she exclaimed as she picked up the grey coat.
"Nice! Good find, Kass. You should hang on to that. It's gonna get a lot colder before it starts getting warmer," Bonnie smiled.
"Maybe I could give it to Rebecca."
"That's a good idea...I'm sure she'll really appreciate it."
"I feel so bad about everything that happened. Hopefully you won't always think of me like that. Not that I'd blame you if you did."
"It seems like you're with us now. That's what matters most," Kassidy told her and the woman smiled.
Mike started to walk over to them as Bonnie said, "Kassidy found a jacket."
"That's great, but, uh, isn't grey the, y'know, uh...?" Mike stammered. "We can't put Rebecca in a Confederate coat."
Kass grimaced as Bonnie and Kass, spoke at the same time, "Oh, I didn't even think about that." Which made them look at each other and chuckle a bit.
"Guess it's better than nothing though," Mike responded, shrugging, as he walked away.
Kass walked up to a display case and smiled. 'Lee would have loved this place. I remember him and Omid were big history buffs.' She grinned at the thought then continued to look around and walk up to the information booth that had a shutter over the window. She moved over to the shutter and tried to open it, and it did, just slightly. Kass looked through and saw a few large containers of water inside the booth. "Over here!" she exclaimed, the other two running over.
Bonnie bent over to look and smiled. "Water! Bottled and clean, that's just what we need!" She went to open the door, but it wouldn't budge. "It's locked. You wanna kick it down?" She asked Mike.
"That'd make an awful lot of noise," Mike replied with a grimace.
"Yeah, maybe. You know, if somebody was small enough, they could...maybe squeeze through that gap there," Bonnie suggested.
"I could try to pry it open some more, but I don't know if that'll help much," Mike shrugged.
"All right, I'll go," Kass huffed, rolling her eyes, "But uh, I'm not so small anymore."
"Smaller than both of us. Thank you, Kassidy," Bonnie smiled at the girl.
Kass climbed the countertop and was about to go through the gap when a walker popped out and grabbed her arm. She yelped in panic and Mike ran over to the door, kicking it repeatedly, until he broke through it and pulled the walker away from her. "Kill it!" He exclaimed as she hopped down, ran into the booth and stabbed the walker in the head with her knife.
"Well...that happened," Mike said, out of breath. "You okay, Kassidy?"
Kass nodded at him with a smile, "Thanks, Mike! You sure don't get enough appreciation."
He grinned, responding with, "No problem, kid... And thanks."
They looked over to see the two jugs filled with water. "At least now we've got something to bring back."
"I'll keep checkin' the other room," Bonnie announced as she walked away.
"Let's get this water," Mike said, lifting one of the jugs up into his arms.
Kass got to the second one and tried to pick it up, but it was way too heavy. "Here. I got this," Mike said, picking up the second jug as they walk out.
"That looks pretty heavy," she said to him, grimacing at the strain she had felt.
"Eh, it's all right," he said, dismissively. "I know it looks like a lot, but we could all go through this pretty quick. Carver was crazy, but at least his shelves were always full...we're gonna have to be conservative as hell," Mike talked as he set down the containers of water.
"We'll make a plan. Everyone will have enough."
"I hope so," Mike muttered, scratching the back of his neck. "That baby's gonna be hard on everyone. Especially Rebecca. And between you and me, she's not looking too good..." Mike muttered before Bonnie exclaimed, "Hey! Guys!" Mike and Kass looked over at her, who gestured for them to go over to her.
They walked over to her to see a raccoon not far away. "It just waltzed on in like it owned the place. Figured it'd make a nice meal," Bonnie explained.
"We can eat raccoon?" Kass asked her.
"I'd eat the shit out of that raccoon," Mike muttered as he stood up to look over at the critter.
The girls looked up at him, making him backtrack on what he said, causing them to smile. "Not like...I mean. Just that I'd be really happy to eat that raccoon. I am starving," he said.
"Fresh meat would go a long way with Rebecca."
"Yeah," Kass said just as the raccoon spotted them and let out a screech.
"Shoot! Don't let it get away!" Bonnie exclaimed and the three of them spread out.
"Over here!" Kass exclaimed, pointing to the staircase, where the raccoon was crouched behind. She moved behind it as Bonnie got in front of it, making a grab for it, but it scurried away from her. "Shit!" She exclaimed as the raccoon ran off.
"Grab it!" Mike exclaimed and Kass made a dive for the critter, but missed, watching it scurry back out of the museum.
"Shit!" she muttered.
They sighed, turning and watching the raccoon in the graveyard when suddenly two little raccoons came out from behind it before they ran off.
"I'm even hungrier than I was before. How'd I get to a place where I'm sad I'm not eating raccoon?" Mike asked.
"Well...at least it was kinda fun," Kass said, smiling up at the two adults.
"Yeah...huh. I guess it was," Bonnie chuckled. "Come on. Let's just get this back to Rebecca and the others."