Clem's POV.
It was almost noon as Me, Y/N, A.J, Violet and Louis set out to find the boat Abel told Y/N about. I'm glad Y/N told me and A.J to leave the basement before he got Abel to talk. I could hear Abel's screams all the way outside the basement and I don't even wanna think about what he did to get him to talk. I quickly got that thought out of my head as I looked at the map where The Ohio River is.
"Are we close yet?" Y/N asked as he looks around the forest with his gun out.
"Yeah. We should see the river somewhere around here. Once we find it, we'll head back to Alexandria with the others and find a way to sneak onto the boat." I Said as I put away the map. We walked through the woods for a while before Louis Says.
"Hey you guys. I think I see it, up ahead." Louis Says. I looked in his direction and I see a big old river boat. We carefully got closer and hid behind a patch of grass. A.J then took out binoculars and looked down to the beach.
"See anything?" I asked.
"Uh..There's the beach. A boat and a wood street on the water." A.J Says.
"That's called a pier." I corrected him.
"Oh, pier." A.J Says.
"Okay, spread out. Look around the area and see what we can find. And don't get too close." Y/N says.
"Anything we should keep an ear out for?" Louis Says.
"See if this is The Delta's boat or not. If it looks like them, look for anything we exploit to get in and out quickly and quietly." Y/N says. We all nodded and spread out to look at the dock ahead. A.J went by himself. Louis and Violet stayed where we were and me Y/N went to the far left to look around. Y/N took out his binoculars and looked around the area in front of us.
"See anything?" I asked.
"There's some horses. Maybe once we rescue our friends, we can cut off their mout of transport by releasing their horses. Give us a better chance at escaping." Y/N says. I then see what looked like torches on a path that leads to a boat.
"What about those torches? We could use those to burn the hay next to the horses to scare them off." I suggested.
"Good idea." Y/N says. I was about to check on everyone else before Y/N says. "Hey, I know this isn't a good time but...What do think about us having our own house?"
"What do mean?" I asked.
"There was this old abandoned house back in Alexandria that I saw and Rick said they never use it. So I thought maybe that could be ours one day. Would you like that?" Y/N asked. My heart suddenly sunk once I heard that. Our own house...I never thought about that.
"Of course Id love that. But let's just focus on getting our friends back." I Said.
"Obviously." Y/N says as he looks back through the binoculars. I then carefully go over to Violet and Louis, who were looking through their binoculars at the boat.
"You guys see anything?" I asked.
"Well, I think these guys might be them." Violet Says.
"Oh really? I couldn't tell from all the guns and military clothes that their wearing." Louis Says sarcastically.
"Louis, why do have to you right now?" Violet Says.
"Guys, Stop!" I Said quietly in a demanding way. "Let me have a look." I Said. Violet hands me her binoculars and I look at the boat and the beach. "I think the only way in is through the pier."
"It looks like it. How are we gonna get in there without being seen?" Louis asked.
"We might need a hellva distraction to get in." Violet Says.
"But where do you think they'll keep the prisoners?" I asked.
"If I recall, Kenny was talking to us about old boats from like the seventeen hundreds. He mentioned that there's a part of the boat that are called brig's." Louis Says.
"Wait, why was he talking about boats?" I asked.
"He was drunk that night, I think." Louis replies. I nodded in response as that does sound like something Kenny would do.
"And where are they on the boat?" I asked.
"I don't know. Should've asked Abel about that." Violet Says. I then looked back into the binoculars and I saw someone walking on the boat. I zoomed in on the figure and it's Marlon! Being taken into another room by a raider.
"I saw Marlon!" I Said.
"Is he okay? What were they doing to him?" Louis asked.
"I couldn't get a good enough look on him. Whatever Lily is doing to him, let's hope he will have enough strength to move." I Said. I then looked at the pier again and the path. "There's plenty of cover on the pier but the path leading to it is too open. We'll be shot before we even reach two feet."
"WALKERS!!" One raider shout from the boat and shot them with bows and arrows. That just gave me an idea.
"I think I've just found our distraction." I Said.
"Okay but how will we get walkers to go towards the boat? I don't know about you but I've never herded undead moving corpses before and I don't plan doing that." Louis Says.
"It's not as hard as you think." I Said. They both looked at me like was insane. "I'll explain later. Let me know when you see something else." They nodded and I went to see what A.J found.
"Clem, there's a little boat with some crates and stuff on it. Looks like some of the things we saw at the train station." A.J Says. He hands me the binoculars and I look through them. I see the small raft with the crates on it along with furniture. Definitely ones at the train station.
"We could do two things with them. One: ride them down river and use them for ourselves. It could be put to good use in Alexandria." I Said.
"And number two is we could use it to distract them by burning them with those torches by the pier. Right?" A.J asked.
"Yeah, exactly A.J." I Said as A.J smiles. Y/N and the others then came up behind us.
"I think that's about everything we can use to get onto the boat. Let's get to somewhere safe and talk through the plan." Y/N says. We all follow him away from the boat as I looked back at the boat. Don't worry, Marlon, Aasim and Omar. We're coming for you.
Y/N's POV. Moments later.
We get away from the boat, far enough to talk about what we should do to get in there and rescue our friends.
"So, what's the plan?" Louis asked.
"Well, there's guards all along the top of the boat. We can just go in there head on and fight them. We just need a distraction long enough for us to get on it." I Said.
"We could burn their supplies and push them down river." A.J suggested.
"That could work but I don't think it'll be enough to get all of them." Clem Says.
"And someone should ride that raft of supplies down river instead. It'll be a great hall for Alexandria. They take from us, we take from them." Violet Says.
"I'm on board for that. But it's your call, Clem." I Said.
"Yeah, I like that. As for our distraction, we should herd a lot of walkers to storm the boat and get on there unseen." Clem Says.
"How will we be able to do that? I know you guys are a bit reckless but I didn't think you'd go THAT far." Louis Says.
"Remember that woman that saved me while I was being chased by Lily and Abel?" Clem asked us.
"Yeah, Carol, right? Who is she?" I asked.
"I think she was with Rick's group, even before they came to Alexandria. Hell, she might've been with him before all of us stepped foot in Alexandria. But that doesn't matter now, what matter's is that I think she can help us get a horde to walk right into The Delta's boat. She told me that she tracks hordes and makes sure that they don't go to any of the community's. Alexandria and those communities allied with them." Clem explains.
"Okay. So how does that help us?" Violet asked.
"We blend in with the walkers by covering ourselves in their guts and blood." I Said. Louis and Violet looked at me like I was insane. "What? It's worked. Me, Clem and A.J have tried it and it works."
"And completely crazy. But considering all the shit the worlds been in, I guess covering yourselves in walker guts is one of them." Louis Says.
"I think it's a perfect plan. Covering yourself like a walker. It's hidden in plain sight, My kinda style." Violet Says with a confident smirk.
"But What will we do if this plan prevails and we run home free? Lily and her Mary band of psychos will just find us again." Louis said.
"Remember, they don't know yet that Alexandria is around here. On top of that, we're gonna be blowing up the boat they use for travel and bringing recruits back to their main base. So it'll be a while before Lily comes back into the picture and when she does, we'll be-." I Said before I looked ahead on the path and saw a woman with red hair walking across it.
"What is it?" A.J asked before I shushed him. I then pointed into the trees to the right to take cover in to avoid being seen.
"There's a woman down the path. She has a rifle." I Said.
"Who is it?" Clem asked.
"I think I might know who it is. You guys hold back. I'll go have a word with this person. If you see anything sketchy, you hightail it over to me." I Said. I then began to sneak up behind the woman. Crouching down and trying to avoid the twigs on the ground to make less noise. I then managed to get behind the woman, who had her gun on the ground and was looking at a map. I then pulled out my pistol and aimed it to the back of her head.
"Back away from the rifle and turn around, Jackie." I said. My sister then dropped the map and held her hands up and stepped aside from her gun. She then turns around and looked me straight in the eye. "What are you doing out here?"
"Could ask you the same thing...I guess it's not to kill me, right? Unless you want to kill the rest of our family, then go ahead." Jackie says as she goes up to my gun and puts the barrel to her head. I then slowly lowered my gun and holstered it.
"No...Now what are you doing?" I asked.
"I'm on patrol for the Delta." Jackie says.
"No, why are you with Lily? More importantly, how are you alive? I thought you were dead." I demanded.
"I...I don't know. I honestly don't know why I'm still alive after all the shit I've done...But it doesn't matter now. Now you want to get your friends back, right? Well, you should not do this, Y/N. Your gonna get yourself and Clementine killed." Jackie says.
"That isn't gonna happen. We're not trying to start a war here. We just want our friends back. And when I saw you back at that school, I wanted to convince you to come with me but after you pointed a gun to my head...I'm not so sure now..." I Said.
"I understand why. But you need to listen, you have no idea what your really getting yourself into. Lily does not fuck around, brother. She's-." Jackie says.
"She's a murdering psycho who killed one of our own." I Said interrupting her.
"Now I'm not saying what she did was right but it was. You killed more of our people and she felt the need to kill that kid. And he tried to do was stupid." Jackie says as I keep my rage inside of me from bursting. "And listen, The Delta, isn't as bad as you may think it is. It may seem like a hard place but it's a paradise when you get into it for a few days." Jackie says.
"Thats the same exact bullshit Lily fed me when I saw her again! Don't you dare try to convince me to play along with Lily's army men fuckery!" I Said.
"Jesus Christ...Your starting to sound a little bit like mom..." Jackie says. I was about to say another thing until we heard another voice.
"Jackie, where are you?!" Lily yelled in the distance. I then quickly hid in the bushes as Jackie went over to Lily.
"Rockingham!" Jackie says as she salutes to her.
"What are you doing out here, soldier?" Lily demands.
"I'm on patrol like you told me to, ma'am." Jackie says.
"Very well. Finish your route and come back to the boat. I need you to help me interrogate one of the kids. Get them to talk about their friends plans are." Lily Says.
"Yes, ma'am." Jackie says as she salutes once more. Lily leaves and Jackie comes over to where I was hiding at. "Listen, our boat leaves for our base in two days. Then it'll be a few weeks before we come back for the rest of you. When we do, we'll be back with much more firepower and men. I'm warning you, little brother. Do not fight this. This is the only way to prevent more people from dying. Including Clementine and that little boy with you."
"Well here's my warning, Jackie. If your people come into my territory again..I will kill all of you...Even you, sister. As much as I don't want to, you'll give me no choice nonetheless." I Said. Jackie just shakes her head and runs down the path to the Deltas boat. I come out of the bushes and looked down the path as I hear my friends coming up behind me.
"What happened? What'd she say?" Clementine asked me.
"Their boat leaves in two days. Two days we have to save our friends. So if we're gonna do this plan, we need to do it now before it's too late." I Said.
"Y/N, did you ask her if Minnie and Sophie are with them?" Violet asked me.
"No, I didn't ask. I'm sorry." I Said. Violet just nodded sadly.
"Okay, so we need to find Carol and try to convince her to help us. I'll go try and find her." Clem Says.
"Can I go with? I wanna help find her." A.J asked.
"Sure. I could use someone to watch my back." Clem Says.
"Wait, how will you find her? She could be anywhere right now." Louis asked.
"She said that she watches for hordes and other dangers in case if their heading anywhere towards the community's. Maybe she could try to herd a large number of hordes towards the boat." Clem explains.
"Then I guess I'll take the others back to Alexandria and inform Rick on what we're doing." I Said.
"Okay, good luck, guys." Clem Says. Right before we separated, me and Clem kissed each other goodbye and we headed off to Alexandria.
Hang in there, Marlon, Omar and Aasim, we're coming.