"We're going after them."
"How? We still don't know where they are, or how many."
"Well, we've got someone who does."
That morning it became you and Louis' task to take the raider with one arm, Abel, down into the basement and try to interrogate him. You had no idea how the task had fallen onto you two, but Clementine, or even Ruby, would surely have been more suited for the assignment.
He was currently passed out, most likely from the pain after he'd fallen a whole storey down. So Louis simply grabbed him and carried him.
"That looks heavy." You said and eyed him.
"It's not too bad. His smell is much worse." Louis said and gagged.
You opened the cellar door and Louis plopped him down in an old classroom chair. You were taping him to the chair with duct tape when you could hear small footsteps coming down the stairs.
"I want to see this." AJ said with a serious face.
"You sure, little man?" Louis asked him and crouched down to his level.
"Yes." AJ answered, determined to partake in the interrogation.
"Do you think the tape's enough?" You asked Louis.
"Probably. He looks pretty dis-Abel-d to me." He said with a smirk. You rolled your eyes at him but you couldn't stop yourself from snickering.
Then the three of you stood there, staring at the raider. None of you took the initiative to actually do anything. The first part had been easy. Now it was just the actual interrogation left.
"Are we gonna do something, or?" AJ asked. "We can't wait for him to wake up."
The kid was right. You looked at Louis and he shrugged in response. You took the call and approached the stranger. You debated what to do for a few seconds to get him back to consciousness.
"Wake up, you ugly fuck!" You shouted right into his ear. He quickly stirred awake and looked at his surroundings.
"Where are your manners?" Abel croaked and coughed a couple times.
"My manners? Kidnapping a couple kids doesn't sound like good manners to me." You spat back at him.
"You're a fierce one." He said. He laughed but it only caused him to go into a coughing fit.
"How do we get him to talk?" Louis whispered to you. "Like, do I have to punch him or something?"
"Honestly, I don't know." You answered.
Then AJ walked up to Abel and kicked him right on his broken leg. You gasped as he did so. The little man was ruthless. Abel screamed from the pain before passing out yet again. Nice, now you'd have to wake him up all over again.
"Should we go get Clementine?" You asked after the three of you had just stood in front of the unconscious, balding man, looking at him for a while.
"I think she would handle this better." Louis agreed.
"You go. I'll keep a watch on him." AJ said and brought a chair to sit on. He took his gun out of his pocket and started playing with it.
"I'll never agree with the guy having a gun." Louis told you as you made your way outside.
In the courtyard, Willy was still mourning Mitch. He was crying and Clementine was comforting him. Poor guy had just lost his best friend, he was most likely the one who took Mitch's death the hardest.
You wondered how Clementine was holding up. You rembered how broken she looked when Violet was taken away. She probably felt like she had to put on a strong facade, since everyone was so dependant on her.
"Abel's tied up in the basement. He passed out from the pain." Louis told her. "AJ wanted to stay down there and keep an eye on him."
Ruby approached you with a shovel in hand, presumably to dig a grave for Mitch. At least you wouldn't have to do it with bowls and spoons anymore, after they'd found equipment in the previously locked greenhouse.
Louis crouched down to Willy's level. This was a common theme for Louis, since he was so tall.
"Hey buddy. It's time for us to bury Mitch, and say our goodbyes." He said.
Heart of gold.
Tenn took a couple steps forward, approaching Willy and Mitch's body. This caused Willy to literally fly at him and push him to the ground.
"Get away from him! You're the reason he's dead!" Willy shouted. You all stared in shock at what was unfolding in front of you. Willy kept on mumbling about how Mitch's death was all Tenn's fault.
"Hey, cut that shit out!" Clementine snapped, trying to break the fight up.
"Someone's gotta say it. It's what everyone's thinking." Willy spat, causing Tenn to run away.
"Let me handle this. Talk to Abel. See if you can find out where Lilly took Vi, Omar and Aasim." Louis told Clementine. "We wanted to hurt him, y'know, to get him to talk, but we just couldn't. Maybe you'll get more out of him than we did."
Louis then went to search for Tenn, so you decided to help Ruby dig the grave. Louis had a knack for comforting people when they were upset, so you left it to him.
"Hey there." Ruby said when she saw you approaching.
"Hi." You smiled at her. "I thought I could lend you a hand."
"Oh, sure. I think there's another shovel in the cupboard in the greenhouse."
After finding the shovel you joined Ruby and started to dig.
"There's so many graves here nowadays." She said. "It's ghostly."
"I know... It really makes me question how in the world I'm still alive." You said with a sad laugh.
"We're a lucky bunch, I guess."
You kept quiet and focused on shoveling for a while, until Ruby changed the subject.
"So... I saw you and Louis yesterday." She said with a hint of amusement in her voice.
It was enough to make you blush. You hummed and pretended to be exceptionally interested in some dirt on your shoe.
"Look at you, gettin' all shy." She teased you. "But, I think all of us knew it was going to happen. We were practically waiting for it."
"What do you mean?" You turned around and asked her. She smiled at you.
"I mean that all of us knew that something was going on before you did yourselves." And with that she went back to digging.
Clementine had been much better at interrogating than you and Louis. She had managed to get Abel to reveal where the raiders had their base. Afterwards, she'd put him out of his misery.
"We should go there tomorrow." She said. "Who's willing to come along?"
Of course AJ wanted to go with Clementine, but Willy said that he'd tag along too. Most likely Willy wanted to get away from Tenn, and the place that constantly reminded him of Mitch's death for a while.
"I guess I can." Louis said. You eyed him varily but he didn't notice.
Before dinner, Mitch's funeral was held. Willy was a mess. You felt sorry for him, because you knew how good friends the two were. Mitch had been like an older brother to Willy, and tou could tell that he'd looked up to him a lot.
You saw how mad Willy looked when Tenn said his goodbyes. His eyes were practically throwing daggers at the younger boy.
"What did Tenn say when you talked to him earlier today?" You asked Louis when two of you were alone.
"He kept saying how sorry he was that he believed what Lilly said." Louis answered.
"Poor thing. I hope he know that what happened wasn't his fault. Lilly is a manipulating coward."
The next morning, they were getting ready to search for the boat that Abel had told them about. You approached Louis before they left.
"Please be careful." You said and put a hand on his shoulder.
"Of course." He said with a soft smile, before giving you a quick hug. "We'll be back before you know it."
And with that, the four of them opened the gate and disappeared into the woodlands.
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Guuyyys!! Thank you so much for 1000 reads!! And that you for reading this chapter! <333
First written April 4th 2019
Edited August 10th 2021