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"Please... don't hurt him!" Clementine speaks again making the strangers eyes go wide.
"He's not bad!" Sydney yells when she watches the girl hesitant.
Slowly, Molly gets off Lee and takes a step back as Lee finds his feet too. He rubs his head as he makes his way towards the girls.
"You're not from Crawford." The girl suddenly talks in a muffled voice making Lee turn as she takes off her hoodie and mask.
"You're not the guy on the radio." Lee states. "I'm not a guy at all. Full marks for observation." She jokes as Kenny suddenly walks out his hiding place behind the girl with his gun pointed to her head.
"Kenny don't!" Lee yells before the girl swiftly sweeps Kenny's leg and he falls, landing on his side as his gun fires. Molly kicks his gun away and brings down her ice pick, when Sydney yells.
"Dad!" She shouts running to him as she stops her hit last minute as the girl passes her and runs to her dad.
Kenny gets up slowly with his daughters help as the girl puts her weapon away. The two share silence listening to the nearby walkers before the girl speaks.
"Who the hell are you people?" She asks crossing her arms. "Kenny, back off. Unless you want this lady to give you another ass-whooping." Lee warns as Kenny turns his glare somewhere else.
"Who're you calling lady?" She speaks turning towards Lee. "The name's Molly."
"Molly, I'm Lee, this is Kenny, Sydney and Clementine. We're not looking for any trouble." Lee explains as Clementine waves with a smile.
"You guys really aren't from Crawford, are you?" She asks again. "No, I'm from Macon. Kenny here's from Florida." Lee answers.
"She didn't ask for our life stories, Lee." Kenny quickly remarks. "What's the deal with this Crawford place?" He asks after.
"You sure you wanna know?" She asks turning towards Kenny who simply nods so she starts her story. "When everything went to shit, some people got together and sealed off that whole neighborhood. Folks willing to do anything to stay alive, stop the dead getting in. I try to avoid 'em."
"Why?" Kenny asks with his arms crossed.
"Let's just say they have a zero-tolerance policy for anyone who won't... or can't... live by their rules." She states. "So how'd you know we weren't them?" Kenny asks.
"Because there are no children in Crawford. Not anymore." She answers looking at Clementine which sends shivers up her back.
"What do you mean, no children? Why not?" Lee asks with a confused look.
"No children, no elderly, no one with an advanced medical condition. Basically, no one who might be a burden on the community. Crawford's all about the survival of the fittest. That's how they survived, while the rest of the world went to shit around them." She explains as they look at the big barrier.
"Holy shit." Kenny says looking down at his daughter.
"What exactly did Crawford do with all these "burdens"? What happened to them?" Lee asks worriedly.
"Well, you met some of them already." She gestures towards the barricade.
"Fuck me." Kenny cusses again at the new information, putting his hand on his head.
"Yeah. Anyone who got sick, anyone too old, anyone they figured wasn't strong enough to survive. To them those people were just mouths to feed, a drain on their precious resources." She explains as they look towards at it.
"How do you know all this?" Lee asks seeing who she wasn't part of the cult but knew all about them.
"Everyone in Savannah knew. What was going on inside Crawford got passed around like a ghost story. Except this one was true." She answers.
"Do you know who's been ringing those bells all over town?" Lee brings up. "Yeah, that would be me." She answers.
Kenny quickly steps up to her with his finger in her face, "I knew it! Lee, I knew she was the one who's been following us, fucking with us!" He shouts.
"Get that finger out of my face, grampa, before I jam it straight up your ass." She demands sternly and Kenny listens to her quietly. "I haven't been following you. I don't even know who the hell you people are."
"Calm down, Kenny. The voice on the radio was a guy, remember?" Lee says. "Yeah, well, whoever you are, ringing those bells this morning nearly got us all killed, raised the dead all around us!" He tells her with a glare.
"That's the idea, genius. It's how I get around. I ring a bell in one neighborhood to attract the local geeks toward it, buys me some time to scavenge the areas they cleared out." She explains.
"Geeks? Is that what you call them?" Kenny asks.
"Yeah. You know, like at the carnival. They'll eat anything, alive or dead." She chuckles a little.
The three continue to talk and when Kenny mentions the boats Molly tells him that anyone who had a boat left when it first started and any abandoned parts were stripped by Crawford. Everything had been stripped clean.
Kenny shouts in anger at the new information. He had brought his daughter to a ghost town that hung kids, with no escape.
Molly shouts at Kenny but the conversation is soon interrupted when the undead approach after hearing the gunshot, filling the street that Lee and Kenny had come from, preventing the group's escape.
Contemplating their next move, Lee and Kenny turn to see Molly making her way up a fire escape within a nearby alleyway.
"Is there another way outta here?" Lee asks when she is successfully makes it up. "Don't know, don't care."
"So what the hell are we supposed to do?" Kenny shouts angrily as Clementine begs for her to help them.
She glances at the sad girl before reaching out her hand. Lee and Kenny help the girls up first and then Kenny who holds out his hand for Lee. Kenny loses his grip on Lee's hand while trying to pull him up, and Lee falls back into the alley with a large group of walkers quickly closing off the alley.
Clementine shouts as Lee is quickly getting boxed in. He discovers a sewer cover and Molly throws down her pick for Lee to utilize as a tool to pry the cover free.
Lee climbs down just as soon as the walkers reach for him. With no other choice Lee looks around another way out. Using water, Lee uses some misdirection to avoid walkers.
Shortly after, Lee finds Chuck or what reminds of him with an empty revolver nearby. After coming into close contact with walkers Lee in a desperate time finds a covered up whole and quickly goes through it.
It leads him to a room with lots of supplies and furniture. When he opens the door across the room his eyes widen when he sees a group of survivors, mingling.
They quickly notice him, the same shocked face as a man quickly points a revolver at him, causing Lee to raise his hands.
"Who are you?" The man with the gun asks. "It's alright. It's okay. I don't want any trouble." Lee says calmly careful not to spook them.
"Neither do we. Which is why you'd do well to turn around and leave. Right now." The man demands.
"Look, I'm sorry I disturbed you folks. I'll just be going." Lee tries to step back at the mama request but a woman stops him. "You can't let him leave. He's from Crawford! If he goes back there and they find out we're down here."
"Are you from Crawford? Don't lie to me, I'll know." The man threatens with a slightly shaky voice. "I'm not from around here. I'm from Athens, grew up in Macon." Lee answers truthfully.
"I have a brother in Macon." The man states, "You were there? How was it? As bad as here?"
Lee looks away sadly, "I'm sorry." Is all he can respond with. Macon was a mess.
The girl interrupts their conversation, walking up to the man with the gun. "You can't trust him, Vernon. You can't let him leave."
"What do you want me to do, shoot him in the head?" The man asks puzzled. "Why not? That'd be more of a mercy than anyone from Crawford ever showed us."
The woman speaks softer, "Think, Vernon! what do you think they'll do if they find out we're down here, right under their feet?"
"Damn it, you're right. I'm sorry, friend. Can't take the risk." The man names Vernon says in a low voice eye widened.
"Look. You don't want to do this. Let's talk, okay?" Lee tries to bargain with them.
"What's to talk about? You won't even tell us who you are." The man says.
Lee takes a step forward, "My name is Lee. I'm a history professor. And I don't want to die today. And I don't think you want to kill me either."
"Don't! Don't come any closer or I'll shoot!" The man stiffens holding his gun more firm.
"Come on, let's just talk about this." Lee tries again with a sad look.
"Vernon, what are you doing? Shoot him!" The woman argues as Lee softly takes the gun out of the scared man hands.
"Relax. I'm not here to hurt you." Lee states when the gun is safely out of his hands.
"You're really not from Crawford?" Vernon asks confused.
"No. I'm really not."
"Well...we are." The man suddenly says with a sad voice. "Or were. We got out of there when they starting sealing up the place, starting weeding out the sick and the old so their perfect survivor society wouldn't be threatened. No room for weakness or vulnerability in their little master race." He says his story matching up with Molly's.
When Lee comments that he wasn't that old he reveals that the group is the last of a cancer survivor group and were in remission. He explains how they lost five members before finally escaping and finding the hidden basement.
"What is this, a morgue?" Lee questions him looking at all of the equipment.
"Yeah. Irony's always high on my list when I'm looking for a place to survive. How did you find your way down here?" The man asks curiously.
"That's not important right now. What's important to me is that I get back to my own people." Lee avoids the question.
"That sewer system you came through runs all over the city, it'll take you wherever you want to go." He states and Lee asks if he could help join him and help guide him through the sewers.
At first the group decline stating that two of their members are sick and need constant care. "Look, I'm sorry if I scared you. I just want to get back to my people. Back to Clementine." Lee says sadly, thinking about the girl.
Vernon's ears and eyes perk up, "She's your daughter?"
"Yeah." Lee answers. "She's probably already wondering where I am."
"Well, we can't have that, can we?" Vernon says before telling his story about how he lost his daughter to the mess and accepts to take Lee.
—
With Veronon's help getting back to the house was a breeze. Lee steps into the quiet house calling Clementine's name as he look see around.
When he sees someone, it's Molly who is to busy digging through the kitchen cabinets to notice him. "Molly?"
The girl stops her spree when she hears his voice. "Oh hey. You made it back." She says with a smile.
"Who's this?" Vernon asks.
"He didn't tell you about me?" She asks walking up to the two. "Understandable, I guess. I'm the one who put that beating on him when tried to jump me back at the river." She says to Vernon before asking who he was.
"Where's Clementine?" Lee ignores her question making her scoff. "She's around here somewhere. Relax, I got her, Kenny, and Sydney all back safely. You're welcome, by the way." She says in a sassy voice before asking for her weapon back and Lee compiles.
Christa suddenly appears rushing down the stairs and towards them. "Lee. Thank God, you're back."
Lee's eyes go wide at her panicked state, immediately worried. "Christa, what's wrong?"
"It's Omid. He's gotten worse. Much worse." She states with a shaky voice. "We have a man wounded." Lee says to Vernon.
"Who's this?" Christa asks just now noticing the stranger. "This is Vernon, he's a doctor." Lee explains to Christa's delight as the three of them go to take a look at him.
Vernon shoos him away to work so Lee continues his search for Clementine. He checks the whole upstairs, running into Molly who is still poking into things.
When he asks her about Clementines whereabouts she states that she was last seen with Kenny and Sydney downstairs.
So at last, Lee heads back downstairs and when he walks in the living room Ben and Kenny are sitting down, and Kenny is drinking from a whiskey bottle.
"Kenny?" Lee says confused.
"Oh, hey. You made it back. Good job. Good job." Kenny says giving him drunken praise. Lee's eyes widen at the state of the man, "What the hell do you think you're doing?"
"What does it look like?" Kenny shrugs taking another big sip.
"Where'd you get the bottle?" Lee asks with his arms crossed, a little disappointed in the man.
"Found it~" he replied in a childish tone.
"Hey, take it easy. I think you've had enough." Lee says trying to reason with him. "To hell with you!" Kenny quickly shouts standing up.
"Getting wasted is not going to help anyone." Lee states.
"Yeah, well, what is?" Kenny shouts closing the gap towards Lee. "We are fucked!" He angrily sits back down.
"Molly said there's not a single boat left in Savannah. No way out. We got walkers all around us, that crazy fuck on the radio messing with us... Hell, if now ain't the time for a drink..." he takes another sip before offering some to Ben who is about to accept it when he sees Lee's glare.
"Have either of you seen Clementine?" He finally asks. "Damned if I know. Gotta be around here somewhere." Kenny replies in slurs.
Lee turning his attention from the drunk man to Ben, speaks angrily. "Ben, how did Clementine sneak out of the house?"
"Hey, don't put all that on me. Omid took a turn for the worse and Christa asked me to help. I'm sorry, I'm doing the best I can here. She was frantic and things got kind of crazy. I told Clementine and Sydney to stay put, what else could I do?" He says getting defensive and then his tough voice breaking when Lee steps up to him.
"Don't be sorry. Just tell me where the hell she is now." Lee demands. "I think she went out to play in the backyard with Sydney..?" Ben says in an unsure voice.
"On her own? With no one watching them?" Lee asks in disbelief.
"Man, will you get off my back? She's fine out there!"
"They better be, or it's your ass!" Lee says before going on the backyard to find them.