Writers POV.....Two days later....
In the last two days, The Hilltop and The Kingdom have done their trade with Richmond. Kingdom had given them some of their handcrafted blades and armor in exchange for some sheep and chicken, along with three crates full of ammo. As for Hilltop, they give them clothes for the winter and movie disks in exchange for ammo and medicine. Recently, Richmond announced that the plan to bring back power to the city had worked. While on their mission to expand their territory throughout the city, they find out that the dam could still work. And after three years, they've finally got it powered up. From that point forward, all the leaders of the major settlements agree that Richmond is the most reliable ally.
Today is Alexandria's trade with Richmond and they will trade rations, meds and a van in exchange for building materials, a box of homemade pipe bombs and plenty of wood to use for repairs or even build a few new houses. With Y/N hearing this news, Y/N takes Rick over to the derelict house he wants to tear down and rebuild it for him and his family. Where they may finally find peace.
"What do you think? Can we bring this shit down and rebuild it with those materials?" Y/N asks as Rick looks over the house and at the stone foundation.
"I'm no carpenter but the foundation looks fine. We won't need to break this all down." Rick says. Y/N nods and heads to the door. He reaches for the door nob and opening it halfway, the door hinges break and falls flat on the floor with dust blowing up from it. They both looked inside the structure and it looks worse on the inside than outside. It's completely empty, the ceiling is about to give and the floors rotted out and holes all over. One step on a certain spot could cause the person to fall right through. Rick and Y/N looked at each other and knew they couldn't step inside.
"How long has this been here?" Y/N asked.
"Since Douglas was in charge, I think. We never bothered with fixing it. There's plenty of other houses we use for housing and storing supplies." Rick says.
"What are we gonna use the rest of the building supplies on?" Y/N asked.
"Well we were looking at the solar panels a week ago and they're about to run their course. Some houses are struggling to keep power going and we'll have to resort to generators soon. The plan is to make a windmill right over there at the center of town." Rick says as he points over at the middle of Alexandria.
"How are we gonna get a windmill built up?" Y/N asked.
"Javier messaged us on the radio that along with the building materials, he'll throw in a book on architecture. On how to build structures like windmills, houses and the works. A couple of our own here in Alexandria was a carpenter and a architect. They asked if we could get him that book." Rick says.
"I'll be sure we get that too then." Y/N says while nodding.
"Thanks. Now, why don't you go ahead and meet up with Daryl? He's getting the van all ready to head out to Richmond. Good luck." Rick says as he patted Y/N on the back and they both parted ways.
During that chat between Y/N and Rick, Clementine had been killing time, waiting for Daryl to get the van ready. She and A.J are at Louis's place as he and his girlfriend, Adaku, had been practicing on their preferred instruments in a duet. Adaku's violin talents show as she plays these pleasant sounding notes that are in rhythm with Louis's piano notes. Clem and A.J applauded their talents with claps as Louis bows in appreciation. They all hung out for a little bit longer before they hear the door knock and Daryl calling for Clem to get ready to head out. A.J immediately asked if he could go with but Clem says no. To stay at Alexandria and Louis offers to watch him. Telling A.J that he could learn some piano skills. After a little more convincing, A.J reluctantly agreed to stay. With that, Clem and A.J say bye to each other and part ways and leaves him with Louis and Adaku.
Clem heads outside and meets up with Daryl to do the trade with Richmond.
"So what are we trading with Richmond?" Clem asks.
"Meds, rations and that van we picked up. What were getting back is building materials and plenty of wood." Daryl says as they arrive at the van and stood by waiting for Y/N to show up. "We really need to keep an eye out while we're on the move. All the dangerous people we've seen or what we've heard, we could get attacked and ambushed."
"I'm aware. The one that has me worried the most is that guy I saw outside the Kingdom looking right back at me. Something about this guy just really.. creeped me out. It's like he knew me or something. What if he has a bigger group and they're waiting for us? What if--?" Clem stops herself as she realizes that she's getting too worked up about it and takes a breath. "I'm alright. Sorry."
"Don't be. So you and Y/N used to be new frontier? It true that they branded themselves?" Daryl asks, trying to change the subject. Clem then raised her sleeve and shows her faded but still visible new frontier brand on her upper arm.
"I hated getting this stupid brand. It's a bad reminder of what happened back then in Richmond. But it's what me and Y/N had to do to keep A.J alive. And speaking of Richmond, you've been there before? I mean, recently?" Clem says as she puts her sleeve back down.
"Once. About a year ago, I went to the city for a supply run I think. Don't remember much about the inside but they're doing great for themselves now. Ever since they got power working again at the dam on the river running through town. You know, Javier and his nephew, Gabe asked if I've ran into two kids named Clementine and Y/N at Alexandria. They must've missed you." Daryl says as Clem's visibly light up.
"Well they're going to be real happy when we get there." Clem says as she smiles.
Y/N had made a quick stop over at Kenny's old home. Where Y/N goes to the desk where he found Kenny's camera with his final wishes on video. Along with his and wife's wedding rings. He looks at them as he begins thinking of his wedding with Clementine. It wouldn't be traditional of course but having all of their loved ones clapping for them as Father Gabriel married them with Louis and Carl as his best men. He hopes that he can at least find a dirty blazer to wear and Clem could wear her hair in a bun with yellow dandelions in them and a white dress. He smiles at the thought of this perfect day to finally marry the only woman he could ever love and A.J will be able to call them mom and dad.
"Y/N?" Rick called from upstairs as Y/N snapped out of his daydream.
"I'm coming." Y/N says as he puts the rings in his pocket. He goes down the stairs to meet up with Rick by the door. Rick noticed the happy expression on Y/N's face.
"Something up?" Rick asked.
"Yeah. I'm great, Rick. We're finally doing this. Trading with Richmond." Y/N says.
"Yep..You sure everything is good? You look like your thinking of something else." Rick says. Y/N sighs in defeat and looks around.
"Okay, okay. I'll show you but you can't tell anyone." Y/N says as he reaches into his front pocket. He holds up the two rings to Rick as he took a second to process why Y/N has two rings and it hit him. Once it did, Rick smiles ear to ear and chuckled and gives Y/N a congratulate hug. "You realize your going to make that young woman the happiest person on the planet, right?" Rick says as the two part ways and he places a hand on Y/N's shoulder.
"I know. But there's something else: What do I do if she says no? That it's too soon to think about marriage?" Y/N says.
"Hold on! Stop, stop, stop. That girl loves you, I think that that's been established. Your the only man she loves, I can tell. So don't be worried about her saying no." Rick consoles him.
"Okay but how do it propose to her? When and where should I do it?" Y/N asked.
"When I proposed to my first wife, Lori, wanna know where I proposed to her?" Rick asked as Y/N nodded. "I proposed to her in front of a Dairy Queen."
"What?! Get out of here, no you did not." Y/N said in disbelief.
"I'm serious. She was in college, I was a rookie cop. So I wasn't exactly rich to take her on a cruise or anything like that to propose to her. You don't always need to make it special. Just do it when you think it's time. For me, it's when I "accidentally" dropped my cone and I kneeled down to pick it up. Got out that ring and her look when she realized what it was...It was the happiest I've ever felt in so long. You'll know that feeling when you get on your knee for her, Y/N." Rick says as he pats the young man's shoulder. Y/N thanks Rick for the advice and the two men left the house to meet with Clem and Daryl.
After the trio said goodbye to Rick and their friends, they left for Richmond. The trip was long but safe. No hostiles except for a few dozen walkers in the road and stopping often to move some destroyed cars on the road. On the road, they've also noticed something off about the dead walkers in the road. Aside from the corpses rotting for years of walking dead, their faces were cut off, fingers chipped off and they were gutted open. Whoever did this clearly had to use it to hide from a horde but why go through the trouble of cutting its face off and chipping their fingers too is what the trio asked themselves. For Clem, she feels that they may find out sooner or later. Hoping that it's later....
Soon enough, they spot the sign that points in the direction towards Richmond. It reads: 'NEW RICHMOND....THE LAST STANDING CITY IN THE APPELLATION COMMONWEALTH...A SAFE HAVEN FOR EVERYONE...ONLY 200 HUNDRED METERS AWAY. POPULATION 8,000.' Y/N and Clem then started to recognize the road they were on and once they turned the corner of a larger building, they see it. The same brick railroad bridge and abandoned gas station they arrived in when they were with Javier and his family many years ago. Only this time, the area is much more secure with security guards on the bridge, road blocked with a gate preventing anyone hostile to get in and the entrance into the underground railroad is completely sealed off with metal plating welded on there. Daryl had began slowing down as they spot a guard with a dozen other guards and a megaphone standing in front of the gate, he says:
"YOU IN THE VEHICLE, KILL THE ENGINE AND STEP OUT SLOWLY WITH BOTH HANDS IN THE AIR!!!" The guard orders. Daryl stopped and looked towards his young companions in confusion.
"Just do what they say." Daryl says as he shrugs a little as they all step out of the van and keep they hands in the air. Before Daryl could identify himself as a council member of Alexandria, a familiar face Y/N and Clementine recognized.
"Damn it, Lucas! I told you not to do regular procedures at the north gate! I said: "If a van starts approaching the gate slowly, don't point your weapons at them!" Says The current leader of new Richmond himself, Javier Garcia as the guards put their guns down once Javier appeared. He has clean shaved face and crew cut haircut along with camo colored cargo pants, brown combat boots and a grey work shirt.
"I don't care! The rules don't change in my eyes, regardless of who they are!" Lucas argues back as Javier rolled his eyes and looked briefly at Y/N and Clementine as they smile at him.
"I'm not having this discussion with you right now! Just go back and check on our supply loaders." Javier orders as Lucas shakes his head and walks away. Javier sighs and looks back at Y/N and Clem as they approach them. Javier smiles joyfully and walks to them.
"Javi!" Clem says with cheer and hugs him as Javier laughs at the gesture.
"Clementine! How long has it been?" Javi says as he hugs her back.
"Been a while, Javier. Been a while." Y/N says with a smile as him and Javier hug too.
"Your all grown up." Javier says proudly.
"Yes. Yes we have. Good to see you, man." Y/N says.
"How's it been?" Clem says as Javier looks back at rest of the guards watching this, even Lucas before he rolled his eyes and left.
"Im not paying any of you to stand. Let's go, get to work!" Javier says as he claps his hands together. The guards then walked towards the van as Daryl got out and joined with them. "Hello..Daryl, right?" Javier asked.
"Yeah, that's me." Daryl says as Javier nods.
"Good to meet you again. Say, why don't we head to the gas station over there and catch up while my workers and guards get everything done?" Javier says as one guard gets in the van and drives past them while the rest followed.
"You guys go on. I'll see if I can help them in anyway." Daryl says as he follows the guards.
"You sure you don't wanna come with?" Y/N asked.
"It's fine. I wanna help." Daryl says. Clem and Y/N just went with it and followed Javier to the gas station.
"So how've you been, Javi?" Clem asked.
"I'm running a city full of people and about to get into a election for who will be the next leader of Richmond. I guess you could say I'm a bit stressed about all that's going on but my people need someone to look out for and I care for them." Javi says as they enter the long abandoned building. Just before Y/N and Clem could respond, a figure jumped out and lightly grabbed at Y/N.
"Hi, Y/N!" A familiar voice said but Y/N couldn't focus on who's voice it is as he instinctively punch the person in the face. The person turned out to be Gabe Garcia as he stumbled from the impact of the punch and hits the window. He groans and swears in Spanish.
"Gabe?" Clem says as they get a good look at Gabe. He's got longer dark hair and a mustache, wears a black leather jacket unzipped with a white shirt underneath and has shin guards on his pants to prevent bites and around his neck, is a walk man with yellow tape around it. With black sharpie written 'Mariana'. Gabe rubbed his face from the punch and looks to them with a smile.
"Good to see you guys too. I see your still a hard hitter, Y/N." Gabe jokes.
"Your still the same idiot, Gabe. I'm sorry but don't do that again. It'll get you killed." Y/N says.
"Yeah, didn't really think that one through. Let's restart. Hey you guys. Been a long time but it's real good to see you both again. Bring it in, come on." Gabe says as he reaches his arms out and Y/N and Clementine embrace him in a hug. "You both look great. This apocalypse sure has kept us in great shape, no?" He says as they let go of each other.
"I guess so. With the lack of food in our stomachs for a while and fighting walkers." Javier joins in, chucking a little at his qwip.
"I've heard you guys are in Alexandria now? What's it like over there?" Gabe asked as Javier lead them to a set of chairs around a table away from the window.
"It's a lot smaller than Richmond but it's home. Our home. In fact, that's one of the reasons we came here. With everything we've done for Alexandria and their allies, Rick has given us friendship and permission to rebuild a house in town for ourselves." Y/N says as he holds Clementines hand underneath the table and Clem smiles a little at this.
"That's great. Hey, did you ever find A.J? Where's he at?" Javier asks.
"We found him. He's safe at Alexandria." Clem says proudly.
"Was hoping you'd bring him. You didn't forget about our deal, right?" Gabe says.
"What deal?" Y/N asked as he and clem look confused for a second before Clem caught on to what he meant.
"Oh, right. Look Javier, we had to travel for miles to find him. Ended up all the way in Wisconsin, barley hanging on. When we found A.J, we promised never to go near any community unless absolutely necessary. We're sorry we lied when we said we'd come back to Richmond. We just couldn't risk losing him again." Clem explained.
"It's no big deal, Clem. Deep down, I had a feeling you won't be back and I don't blame you. Lots of crazy shit happened to us when we ran into New Frontier. You had no reason to go back to the place responsible for losing A.J in the first place." Javier says.
"And to be honest, you wouldn't like the working conditions of expanding the territory. Dealing with refugees, walkers and the winters. Goddamn, these last three winters have not been easy, let me tell you man." Gabe says as he places his hands behind his head to relax.
"So wait, where's Kate at?" Y/N says as he looks around for Kate.
"She couldn't make it. She's too busy with managing our trading business within the community. But she says her hellos and hopes you guys will come to Richmond." Javier says.
"And is she doing good?" Y/N says.
"The stress of running a trade business has been..well, stressful on her. Lotta a weight is put on your shoulders to be one of the most important roles in running new Richmond than you may think. But she's got us to keep her going." Gabe says proudly.
"Might be as soon as we get our home done or before. But A.J has been curious to how baseball and sports in general worked then." Clem says.
"Okay then, let's keep the deal standing. Whenever you get your house done, we'll show you new Richmond and how we have brought strong hope for our people." Javier happily says.
"And how does your trading work?" Y/N asks.
"Let's talk about that on the to the bridge. We can get a great view of the city so you can see how much we've expanded everything." Javier says as he stands up and heads for the door as the others follow. They headed outside and through the small tunnel that leads to Richmond. Going past all the security and loaders, Gabe tells Y/N and Clem that Gabe is working with the loader teams. They manage the supplies inside their community, make sure everything is in the right place and take back the traded supplies from their allies back into town.
They go up onto the bridge via ladder and when they made it to the top, passing through the guards over looking the area around them, they see the city of new Richmond.
"Richmond....Still looks the same from up here to be honest." Y/N says.
"You haven't even been inside the place in like what, Six years or more?" Gabe says, sounding a little defensive.
"I was making a joke, calm down." Y/N says, defusing the situation.
"Okay but it kinda sounded to me that you were insulting my tìo's hard work getting this place back--." Gabe says before Javier interrupted him by scolding him in Spanish as they began quite arguing in Spanish. Y/N and Clementine looked at each other like nothing much has changed with these two since they last saw them.
"Guys! It's no big deal, really. Y/N was being a smartass and he thought it was funny." Clem says defusing the situation.
"I didn't think it would offend you. That's all, just a misunderstanding and I'm sure you did work very hard to make you hopes and dreams become a reality." Y/N says.
"Your forgiven." Gabe says
"Well, this what I always say: the hard part won't be expanding it. The hard part is actually running it." Javier says.
"That's true. So anyway, that is a good view of the city." Clem says as she walks closer to the edge of the bridge facing Richmond.
"Thats towns square. Right where it We started expansion towards Old Town Manchester, figured we push towards the water and see what's down that way. Make the river our evacuation plan just in case something really bad were to happen." Javier says as he points in in two sections of the city.
"That's smart. Do you really have 8,000 people here?" Clem says.
"Yeah..gonna be tough to transport all those people down the river if shit were to hit the fan. But honestly, I don't see that happening anytime soon. We're well armed and protected but most importantly, we have the number." Gabe says confidently.
"Damn straight. How did you get 8,000 people? Where'd they come from?" Y/N asked.
"Some from pretty much all over the place. North of Canada, east towards Norfolk, the West seen mostly just more and more muerto's. From the south towards Georgia and the other southern states is the most refugees come in. I'm sure you've heard of it by now that there's some kind of big war going on way down south between a bunch of communities." Javier says.
"Yeah, we know about that." Clem says.
"Clem, should we ask them?" Y/N whispers to his girlfriend.
"Ask us what?" Javier asked as Clem nods at Y/N to tell them and Y/N gets closer to Javier and whispers:
"Can we talk about this somewhere more private? Rick has some secret information he's needs to be passed to you." Y/N whispers to Javier and Gabe.
"Uh sure. Let's head down to the--." Javier says before a guard on the bridge shouts 'WALKERS! COMING FROM THE TREELINE!' Down below, they see walkers coming from the trees. Around ten or so as guards get into their battle positions. Javier looks at the guards on the bridge and orders them to head down there and help them. Without questions, they move down below and eventually, they were by themselves on the bridge.
"Guess right here will work. So, what's Rick 'The man with plan' Grimes got for us?" Gabe says.
"It's regarding the man your in the election against. Alexander Silverton, right?" Clem asks.
"That's right." Javier says.
"What if we told you that he may not be what he say he is?" Clem says as Javier and Gabe look to each other. "Okay, here it is." She and Y/N go on to explain what Rick told them. About how his real name is actually Alexander Davidson, how he used to be a politician and that he was once the leader of Alexandria. But he was exiled from the people for allegedly forcing himself on a couple of women in the community.
"Shit...well um...He does have the look of a politician." Javier says.
"He does. And get this: The guy wears a tattered three piece suit and the dude struts all over the place to look cooler. Fuckin' asshole." Gabe says chuckling at this as Javier rolled his eyes at his nephew.
"We'll look more into it. Maybe I could use this information to my advantage to win the election." Javier says.
"I wouldn't until you know for sure. What do you know about this guy?" Y/N asks.
"He's one charming character, that's for sure. Made quite a lot of friends during his time here, even when New Frontier was around." Javier says.
"Oh and speaking of new frontier, you guys probably shouldn't be showing off your new frontier marks inside Richmond." Gabe says.
"Why not?" Clem asks.
"It's a new law we made for the people and who were in new Frontier. You go around showing that mark off to the public, consequences will come. We have a three strike system of law here. Break the rules once, the punishment is petty like cleaning up trash or walker clean up crew. Break it twice, you get thrown in jail for a day and it won't be a fun time. You can ask Gabe." Javier jokes as Gabe responded by flipping him off. "Third strike, you get exiled out of Richmond for a week as our council decides if we want to let you back in. If you commit murder...Well, I'm sure you know."
"You get executed?" Clem asks.
"No you just get a slap on the hand." Gabe says in a smartass tone.
"Okay Gabe." Clem says. Just then, Lucas came climbing up the ladder and walked towards them.
"We got that wagon all ready for transport, Javi." Lucas says. Javier tells him 'good work' and they all went down to get ready to move out to Alexandria.
Right before they did, Lucas complained that Daryl was up his ass for not helping out clear the walkers. Lucas denied this but everyone saw him not helping and with that, Javier had enough of his shit, so he fired him and told him to collect his final payment with their payment managers. After all that, they checked to make sure everything was in order and Clem and Y/N said goodbye to Javier and Gabe. Y/N even told Javier that if their not too busy running a community, they could come visit them at Alexandria and see their home they're building. Maybe even help out renovate it. Javier says maybe but with the election, it'll be hard to find time to do that. With that, they said their final goodbyes and took off down the road back to Alexandria. Before Javier and Gabe could go back into the city, one of the guards stopped Javier and tells him some scary news. When everyone was clearing the walkers, one the guards swore he saw a walker running. Like retreating away once it saw it's friends getting wiped out......
Riding back down the road to Alexandria in the wagon pushed by two strong stallions, no danger seemed to be close by for Clem, Y/N and Daryl. Y/N drives the wagon, keeping his eyes locked on the road. Daryl stays in the back with the materials, watching behind them and Clem keeps one eye on the map and around them. On the way there, Y/N and Clementine spark a conversation with Daryl on what they wanted to do as adults if the world didn't end. Y/N thought he would be a cop one day, like his dad was since he looked up to him so much. Clementine thought about being a veterinarian for land and even sea animals.
"I can definitely see you as a cop, Y/N." Clementine says.
"Yeah, I guess I would've been but my dad did always let my little kleptomania for candy slide whenever I got caught. He was a great dad but he wasn't exactly the right example to being a officer of the 'then laws'." Y/N says. Clem then looks back at Daryl and asks:
"What about you, Daryl? What did you do for work from before?" Clem asks.
"Oh..." Daryl says quietly while scoffing and just before he could say anything else:
"Wait, let me guess." Clem says as she thinks for a moment. "Prison guard officer." Y/N chuckles at this as Daryl turns his head away and smiles at this while shaking his head slowly.
"Not exactly. I did meet some..on the other side of bars." Daryl says.
"I was gonna say biker but it felt too obvious." Clem says.
"Oh yeah? What gave me away?" Daryl says.
"Couldn't have been that hotheaded attitude he's got, right?" Y/N says.
"Or the biker vest and bike you ride around on." Clem says.
"Yeah." Daryl says as he smiles a little away from the two. When he looks back down the road, he sees a figure run across the road. "Guys, stop talking. I saw something."
"What? What did you see?" Y/N says they took out their weapons and they carefully looked around their surroundings.
"Looked like a person. I don't know who but I think we should turn into the woods over there. Hide the wagon in the bushes and wait and see who's out there." Daryl says as Y/N nods in response. Y/N turns the reigns to the right and the horses head into the woods, pushing the small bushes forward into their direction and before they had time to react, the horses get startled and freaked out so much, that they broke out of their attachments to the wagon and galloped away.
"No, goddamn it, no! Fuck!" Daryl says as he tries to stop the horses but they were too fast. He then looks down and sees a rattlesnake on the ground that scared away the stallions. Daryl stomps on the snakes head in a fit of anger, just before it could bite him. "This why I stopped dealing with horses." He whispered angrily to himself.
"Now what the fuck are we gonna do?" Y/N says as he takes out his FAMUS bullpup rifle and cocks it.
"I'll go after the horses, they can't have gone far. Y'all stay here with the wagon and watch out for any trouble." Daryl says as he takes some rope from the wagon and starts going into the direction of where the horses went.
"You sure you wanna do that? All by yourself?" Y/N says.
"Not like there's much choice." Daryl says.
"Yeah, there is. We're not too far from Richmond, let's just go there, get more horses and get this back to Alexandria." Y/N suggests.
"By the time we get back, this stuff could be gone. We've seen and heard about people being out here so these supplies will be for the taking for everyone." Daryl says.
"And Daryl says he saw someone down the road." Clem adds.
"Come on, guys. Look around you, who's gonna be out here? I mean, what are the chances of that happening?" Y/N says.
"I know what I saw! And for the past few weeks, it's been pretty damn high." Daryl argues back. The two men argue with each other of what they should do until Clem spots someone down the field next to them. A person, standing there watching them in some dark clothing and a gas mask.
"Guys, shut up! Look!" Clem says as she points to the person and then two more people popped up from the tall grass, wearing the same clothes, brandishing blunt weapons and started approaching them.
"STOP! PUT YOUR WEAPONS DOWN!" Y/N says as they point their weapons at the still approaching strangers. Just before either of them could fire a warning shot, Daryl gets shot in the leg with an arrow as he screams in pain. More arrows were shot at them as Clem and Y/N took cover by the wagon, shooting in all directions as the arrows seemed to come from everywhere. They hear people shouting in the woods but in a foreign language from the sounds of it.
"Daryl, you okay?!" Clem says as she reloads her gun and sees him in the grass, pulling out the arrow from his leg.
"Don't worry about me! Get the hell out of here!" Daryl says as he fires his pistol towards the approaching hostiles and the men got down on the tall grass.
"Ain't gonna leave you, Daryl!" Y/N says as he sees one hostile show himself in the distance, aiming a bow at his head. Just before he could get a shot on Y/N, he shoots him with his rifle, killing the mysterious enemy but more were in the woods. Daryl then crawled away under the cover of bushes into a fallen tree and hid inside it as Y/N and Clem were running low on ammo. Suddenly, the arrows ceased fire and a man with a French accent starts talking to them in the field:
"PUT YOUR WEAPONS DOWN, AMERICAN'S!! WE KNOW YOU DON'T HAVE TOO MUCH MUNITIONS LEFT!! GIVE UP THE WAGON AND WE MIGHT LET YOU LIVE!!" A man with a French sounding accent said.
"YOUR MAKING A BIG FUCKING MISTAKE HERE!!! THIS WAGON IS PROPERTY OF A MUCH LARGER COMMUNITY AND IF YOU KILL US, THEY'LL FIND OUR BODIES AND THE LEFTOVER WAGON!!! YOU'LL BE HUNTED DOWN AND KILLED BY THIS COMMUNITY!!!" Clementine threatened them.
"SURE, THEY WOULD! BUT WE'LL BE LONG GONE AFTER WE TAKE WHAT YOU HAVE! MAYBE WE'LL HAVE TO KILL ONE OF YOU SINCE YOU KILLED ONE OF MINE, JUST HOW THINGS ARE!" The mysterious stranger replies.
"FUCK YOU, YOU SHOT AT US FIRST!!!" Y/N says. He sees a man charge in from the right side of the wagon with a big machete and shoots him in the chest and knocks him down but doesn't kill him because of the armor hes wearing, before Y/N shoots him in the head. Even when his adrenaline rush is up, Y/N felt something off when suddenly:
"Y/N!" Clem calls out. Y/N turns his head quickly and sees a man in a gas mask and garbage bag poncho, close to Clem's height with a sharp bit of metal made into a knife to her neck.
"Drop it. Now." The man says in a French accent and a little muffled from the mask. Y/N sees Daryl as they look at each other as he crawls away. Y/N reluctantly dropped his FAMUS bullpup rifle and got his hands up. The men made them get on their knees as the shorter man orders his group to seemingly loot through the wagon and to tie up Clem and Y/N.
"Listen, please. You don't need to kill us, just take the supplies and let us go. We won't tell anyone back at our settlement." Y/N bargains. One of the attackers walk up to them and took off his gas mask. His left eye had no color, possibly from a explosion, bald head and his expression was so lifeless as he looked through Y/N's soul.
"Listen, I know you are desperate to get out of this situation. Trust me, I know that feeling. But There's no point in trying to bargaining anymore, so just enjoy you last few moments in your life, Americans." The man said in a French accent. He then turns to Clementine. His expression turning to slight pity but his dead eyes still outweigh it. "Such a shame. To kill such a beautiful young woman. But don't cry. I'll make your deaths quick." He says, touching her face. He then looks up to one of the men in the wagon, orders to him in French and makes a kill gesture by sliding his finger across his neck.
"Wha--No, don't do this! Please! I wanna see my boy!" Clem pleads as the man stands up and moves away saying:
"I'm sorry...but this is the way it is." The man says as three other men get in front of Y/N and Clem with their guns, including Daryl's crossbow, which was pointed right at Y/N's head as Clem swore they wouldn't get away with this but Y/N just staried them down with a death stare.
"HEY!!" Daryl screamed at the men, stopping them from killing the two kids. The attackers looked to Daryl, who was limping towards them with three of the home made pipe bombs from the Richmond trade. One with the line very short and a Zippo lighter with the flame going inches away from the fuse. "Let them go. Or we all get blown to hell. Your choice...I'll do it, I've got nothing to lose. What do you got?" Daryl threatened them. The attackers all had their weapons trained on Daryl, waiting for their leader to make the call. The leader himself didn't even seemed all that worried. More annoyed than anything as he looked to his men. Then he orders something in French to his men and they lowered their bows and arrows. Right before they hear a click and one of them throws some kind of grenade at them. Which just turns out to be a smoke bomb that emitted a big cloud of smoke and Clementine, Y/N and Daryl breathed it in and were coughing hard as the French attackers disappeared in the smoke. Y/N and company get out of the smoke cloud and when they got a distance away from it, Daryl cuts their binds off.
Ten minutes later....
Y/N and Clementine hid away in the shrubs, watching the wagon from afar to see if they come back at all as Daryl wraps some bandages around his leg. By this point, the smoke had cleared but whatever kind of smoke they used to get away had to have been military grade smoke bombs. Daryl was upset because the attackers had taken his crossbow but clem had comforted him because if he hadn't done what he did, they'd be dead and she thanks him for that. Y/N thinks that he knows who these people are. They could've been the same people that raided that small community where Y/N found the van for the Richmond trade. The garbage bag ponchos, gas masks and the most noticable is the smoke bomb. After waiting for a few more minutes, they determined that they had moved on and right as they stood back up, the horses had happen to trot back to them on the field, eating grass. Daryl and Y/N go to retrieve the horses as Clem goes back to the wagon to see what's left. These attackers didn't have time to take nothing from the wagon but they did take their guns as Daryl had mentioned. When she looked to the attacker with armor Y/N killed, she saw the armor and looked familiar from a distance. She hopped off the wagon and tipped his lifeless corpse and what she saw was one of the Kingdom's armors! Y/N and Daryl see this and are concerned. 'Did these people steal from the Kingdom's supplies' they think to themselves. When Y/N suggests maybe the kingdom got some outsiders to steal from Alexandria's trade supplies, Daryl takes off his gas mask and looked at his face, who's eyes were leaking blood due to the bullet to the head. The only way they can find out it's true or not is by getting back to Alexandria ASAP. So they get on the wagon and rode like hell back to Alexandria....
The next day....
When they returned to Alexandria yesterday, Rick regrettably informed everyone that The Kingdoms supply wagon did get attacked by the same people that tried to kill Y/N, Clem and Daryl the same day. It happened when The Kingdom's supply wagon had left left Richmond and we're about five miles away from the kingdom. Knowing that this could be a problem, the council sent out teams to hunt down these mysterious people but couldn't find any trace on them. How those people knew where the supply wagons were going is a question they'll probably not get an answer to. With those people attacking the trade system, some walkers getting smarter and the stranger Clementine saw in the woods, Y/N gets a bad feeling that there is some kind of evil that is watching every community near them. And it's inevitable that it's coming their way...
Despite all that has happened, Y/N can at least try to enjoy building a new home for him and his family. In a safe place with people that care about them. While Clem, Y/N and Daryl were gone, Rick had gotten their friends and a few other residents of Alexandria with home renovation experiences to tear down the old structure of their home and rebuild a new one. They found a blueprint to build a single story house that fitted the foundation. Perfect fit for three people and according to Louis, great for party's. With the help from the Ericson kids including Marlon, the council and other Alexandria residents, the time it will take to rebuild the house could take up to the fall season, depending on setbacks and weather.
(Would be a missed opportunity to not do this.)
October...
Many months later, the fall season had began as the leaves had changed color and grew colder. Which is great for Y/N and Clem as their home was built right on expected due date. The house looked so pretty at night, with the painted hand prints of Y/N, Clem and A.J on the door with their initials underneath those handprints. All their friends had gathered around the front of the house to look at the house they made with pride. Glenn then brings up a big tray with a big bottle of whiskey and plenty of glasses for everyone to drink out of. As they celebrated their accomplishment, Rick went up to the front porch of Y/N and Clementine's to prepare himself for one of his speeches.
"Everyone, I'd like to make a toast." Rick says as everyone almost instantly stopped talking and looked to Rick. "A toast to not only Y/N and Clementine, who have done so much for us but to us. Just look at us. Bonding, talking, having a good time. It makes me proud to see all this. We a strong community that can protect and provide for our friends and family that'll take on anything that proves a threat to that. I know that there's been some scary thangs going on in those woods. One of them being the Delta. They were a threat because we don't know how armed they are or how big their army is. But not really anymore, If it wasn't for Clementine and Y/N coming up with a great plan to divert them away from Alexandria and or our allies, we could've been attacked and possibly overrun this community. So...to Alexandria and to our new friends, Y/N and Clementine." Rick says as he raises his glass and smiles at Clem and Y/N. The Alexandriaies cheered Alexandria and the Ericson kids cheered Y/N and Clem's name once as they all drank from their glasses.
"And before everyone gets too wild with the whiskey--im looking at you, Lou." Y/N says as Louis looks at him confused and drunk as a skunk.
"Huh? I ain't drunk. I'm--Im okay, officer." Louis says as he stumbled a little and laughed. Carl and Asim then went over and helped him up. As Rick got off the porch and joined with Michonne and Daryl, Y/N looked to him and winked. Y/N then turns to Clem and says.
"Clementine, would you like to look inside our home?" Y/N says as he takes her hand.
"Our unfurnished home? Yes, Y/N. I do." Clem says in a sassy tone as Y/N guides her to the porch. Before they could reach the door, Y/N says.
"Clem?" Y/N says as Clem turns around a little confused. "I really didn't think of a good speech like Rick, so I'll just say this: I don't wanna enter this house as your boyfriend." Before Clem could ask, Y/N got down on one knee and reached into his jacket pocket. A.J was a little confused as to why Clem, Maggie and Ellie gasps as Y/N took out one of Kenny's wedding rings. "I wanna go into our new home as your husband. Clementine Marsh, will you marry me?"
"Yes! YES, OH MY GOD!" Clem screams as she jumps into Y/N's arms and kisses him as he holds onto her, spinning her around. Everyone claps happily as Y/N sets Clem down on her feet and takes her left hand and was about to put it on her ring finger but almost puts it on the missing finger. Y/N looks to her in a apologetic expression but Clem smirks this off and puts it on her other ring finger. As they kisses again, A.J asks Ellie what is happening and tells him that their now fiance's and will soon be husband and wife. Which means A.J can properly call them mom and dad. A.J takes a second to think about this and smiles about it apon realization. He then goes up to them and hugs them both and calls them mom and dad. Telling them congratulations and he loves them both.
Even after Y/N had felt lost in the darkness...he had found his way out of it...