All that could be heard was the sound of our footsteps as we headed towards where Abel said the boat was. I walked behind everyone, knife in one hand, and the paper I had found in Abel's boot in the other. I continued to read the paper over and over trying to figure out what it was and what it meant. I haven't had a chance to mention it to Clem yet, since we immediately set out after talking and ultimately killing Abel. I sighed in frustration, shoving the paper into my pocket. There has to be a reason that he had this, something important. Louis walked a bit slower until he was matching my pace. I smiled at him slightly and he wrapped his hand around mine. I looked over at Clem who was looking closely at the map, making sure we were going in the right direction. I looked up at the trees, the silence was comforting after the events of last night, soon enough it was broken by Clem addressing all of us.
"Once we find the boat, we'll look for a way to sneak on board." Clem spoke, folding the map and tucking it into her back pocket.
"Hopefully we can find a place where they can't see us." I added, Willy's glared.
"Yeah at least Tenn won't fuck it up this time." He muttered. Aj turned around, an offended look was on his face.
"It wasn't Tenn's fault!" He defended, Willy looked at Aj.
"Yes it was! Mitch died because he-" Willy began, Aj took a threatening step towards Willy.
"Say one more thing about Tenn. I dare you." He snapped, I let out a frustrated sigh and stepped between them both, who were glaring at each other.
"Enough, both of you. It's nobody's fault. We need all of us to work together, arguing isn't going to help with that." I ordered, Clem nodded.
"Guys... there it is!" Louis called out to us and we all turned to see a large boat, it was attached to the docks. Clem quickly motioned for us to crouch. We all slowly made our way to the large boat attached to the dock, a few people were off the boat and were on watch. I looked over at Clem.
"This looks like it could be it." I whispered, Clem nodded quickly.
"Yeah. It does." She replied, we all slowly made our way into the grass, making sure that we weren't seen. Aj put the binoculars to his face.
"You see anything?" Clem asked, Aj nodded.
"A beach, uhm.. a boat, and uh.. wood street in the water." Aj spoke, I smiled.
"It's called a pier." I explained, Aj looked at me then back the pier in curiously.
"Hmm.. a pier.." He spoke to himself, probably wanting to remember what it was in the future. Clem grabbed the binoculars and looked at everyone.
"Okay, let's spread out and focus on those areas. Keep your heads low." Clem ordered, we all nodded and began to go in different directions. I quickly grabbed Clem's arm remembering I wanted to talk to her about what I found on Abel. She turned to me curiously.
"Can we talk?" I asked. Clem nodded and we walked a little away from the group, just out of earshot. I sighed and pulled out the old crumpled paper and unfolded it, showing it to Clem. She grabbed it and looked at it in confusion.
"What is this?" She asked.
"When we got the info out of Abel earlier and you and Aj left, I noticed this was hidden inside of Abel's boot. I have no idea what it is.. but it looks like a bunch of city names." I explained, Clem glared down at the paper.
"We should definitely hold onto this. Their has to be a reason why he didn't show this to us." She spoke, she quickly put it in her pocket.
"Good catch (Y/N). This might help us with our plan if we figure out what it means." Clem thanked, I gave her a thumbs up.
"It's nothing. We should see what's going on with the boat." I reminded, We both made our way back to the group and Clem began to check on everyone, I decided to see how Louis was doing. I walked over to him and he smiled a bit, Louis gestured to the pier.
"From where I'm sitting, that pier seems like it's the only way inside." He spoke, I looked at the boat curiously, trying to see if there was another way inside.
"Mm.. there's a lot of raiders on the deck. I wonder if there's more inside..." I began, I quickly noticed something in the corner of my eye and I gasped.
"L-Look! It's Violet!" I whispered, Clem quickly noticed and looked through the binoculars once again. She nodded.
"Yup. It's her." She agreed, Louis frowned.
"Holy shit.. this is really it.. we found them." Louis spoke, I nodded. At least Abel wasn't lying to us about that. I pulled out my notebook and began to draw the boat and all it's entrances, if we were to make a plan we would probably need it. I looked at the pier and began to sketch it, I turned to Louis.
"Look.." I spoke, pointing to the pier.
"The pier has plenty of cover.. if we were to go through the main entrance we could probably sneak through there undetected.." I mentioned, Louis nodded and I quickly wrote it down into my notebook. As I continued to sketch I noticed a small entrance after the pier. 'Mmm.. this might be our way in..' I thought, I quickly wrote it into my notes.
"There's the entrance at the front here.." I pointed, Louis nodded and gestured towards the back of the boat.
"There's also one on the back too." He added, I nodded and updated my notes. Clem stood next to me and looked through the binoculars again, she then looked at my sketch and smiled.
"Good idea. I don't know if you noticed but there's also a small opening at the top of the doorways." She mentioned, I nodded.
"You and Aj know how to handle those right?" I asked, she nodded. I added it to my notes. Clem also explained to me about the horses and boats with supplies, and I made sure to add that to my notes and drawing as well. As we continued to search for more stuff on the boat a question came to mind.
"Where do you guys think they keep prisoners..?" I asked, Clem began to think. Louis quickly responded.
"Don't boats have brigs?" He questioned, me and Clem looked at him in confusion.
"What's that?" We asked in unison.
"Boat jails." He answered, Clem shrugged.
"Maybe.. but where?" Clem asked again, Louis looked at the boat again.
"Now that.. I don't know." He replied, I decided to write down 'Brigs/Boat Jails?' In my line of notes. I sighed and looked at the pathway that led to the boat.
"Hey Clem.. there's no good cover that leads up to the pier.. how are we gonna even get there without being noticed?" I asked, Clem thought for a second.
"We'll need one hell of a distraction-"
"WALKERS!" A raider quickly yelled out, stopping Clem mid sentence. We watched as a small group of walkers had began to make their way over to the boat. The raiders quickly raised their guns and shot each one in the head, killing them instantly. Me, Clem, And Louis looked at each other in silence.
"Now we just need, what, a dozen walkers? How hard could that be?" Louis asked, Clem looked out at the path again.
"Maybe not as hard as you'd think." She replied. I quickly wrote down 'Distraction.. walkers?' In my notebook with bold letters. I quickly finished a rough drawing of the boat and smiled at it, I would probably go over the lines later. We all gathered into a small group and Clem looked at all of us.
"We should get out of here before they spot us, we can talk through the plan once we're somewhere safe. (Y/N) wrote some stuff down that we can use to make a plan." Clem spoke, we all nodded and quietly made our way out of the sight of and raiders and began to discuss what to do.
"Alright.. what's the plan?" Louis began, I pulled out my notebook and showed it to Clem. She nodded and began going through the info I wrote down.
"Well, they've got guards posted on the pier and the boat. There's no way we can take them all at once. Our only hope is to distract them while we sneak on board." Clem explained, Aj pointed to the torches that I had drawn in my Journal.
"We should burn their stuff." He spoke, I put my hand on my chin.
"Not a bad idea.. but what should we burn? The supplies.. or the hay for the horses?" I asked, Willy looked at me.
"Whatever we don't burn we should take. Ruby would love to have the horses, but I'd rather steal those supplies. I could build traps.. weapons." Willy mentioned, I crossed my arms.
"I think the horses could be useful too.. and when are you gonna get horses around here?" I objected. Clem thought for a moment before turning to Willy.
"I think we should steal the supplies. Not that your point is bad (Y/N) but we need those supplies.. horses make too much noise anyway." Clem spoke, I frowned. I was a bit sad she didn't agree with me but she was right.
"Alright.. let's burn the hay then." I agreed, I made sure to write it down in my journal. Clem looked at Willy with a serious face.
"But. If you are going to steal from the rafts, you have to do it carefully." She reminded, Willy nodded.
"Wouldn't do it any other way." He agreed, I pulled out my pencil and began to write down the plan as Clem explained.
"The fire will lure the raiders away from the boat, And we can sneak across the pier." Clem confirmed, I looked up from my journal.
"But what if someone sees us Clem, I'm sure they won't hesitate and shoot us." I objected, Clem put her hand on her chin in thought when suddenly an idea popped in my head. I quickly wrote it down. Willy leaned over my shoulder and looked at what I wrote in confusion.
"James?" He questioned, Clem's eyes widened. She nodded at me and addressed the group.
"You guys remember that guy I told you about? James?" She asked, the group nodded.
"He sent in walkers to save me, (Y/N), and Aj from Lilly and Abel." She explained, I smiled.
"Are you suggesting he could help us again?" I asked, Clem nodded. I smiled and circled 'James' in my journal and put an arrow connecting it to 'Distraction? Use walkers?'
"If we bring a big group of walkers onto the beach..." Clem started.
"We can blend in with them and not be seen.." I added, Clem nodded. I looked at my notes one more time before closing my journal.
"Alright got a bunch written down. I think this is the start of a good plan." I tucked my journal into my bags front pocket. Clem agreed and we all turned and headed off towards the school. I felt determined that we would get the group back, Willy walked up next to Clem and began talking to her, while Louis jogged up to me and grabbed my hand in his. I looked at him.
"Do you really think this will work?" He whispered in my ear, I was about to say yes when I hesitated. I wasn't too sure myself, but we had to try. I was about to speak when the sound of leaves rustling stopped us all dead in our tracks. Clem put her arm in front of all of us, when a figure started walking up the path.
"Hide. Quick!" Clem whispered, we all dashed away from each other and hid behind trees and bushes. Louis stayed next to me, keeping a firm grip on my hand as we hid in a bush together. I glared as I watched the figure from the bushes. The sound of an axe hitting wood could be heard. Me and Clem made eye contact and she gestured to the person, I knew right away what she was gonna do. I poked over at the person then back at Clem, giving he a small nod. Clem turned away and pulled out her knife, I pulled out mine just in case. Clem turned to Aj and told him to stay, before turning back towards the raider. She slowly began to sneak out of the trees and bushes, making sure she was being quiet, as to not be caught by the raider. When she got close enough, she quickly raised her knife and grabbed the raider, putting the knife to their throat and telling them to drop the axe, when they agreed to. I quickly followed after Clem quietly for backup. I listened as Clem began to question the raider.
"Where do you keep the people you steal?" She demanded, the raider tried to turn to look at Clem, but couldn't with the knife to their throat.
"I don't know what your-" they began, Clem put the knife even closer in a threatening way.
"I'm not fucking around. Answer the question." She ordered, the raider quickly complied.
"The boiler deck..! Second deck. Their all there." She quickly spoke, I quickly pulled out my journal and wrote it down. Louis quickly ran to my side in realization.
"Clem, stop!" He called out, Clem looked at him and was elbowed off the raider. I quickly stood up, my knife pointed in a defensive manner. The raider turned around and Louis looked at her in shock.
"Hey, Minnie.."
A/N
Hey guys! Finally! A new chapter! It's been a long time but it feels great to write again! I hope you all enjoyed this chapter. And I can't wait to continue to write more! Next week will be the Clem and Violet variations like always! Again thank you all for reading and I'll see ya next week!
Stay safe!
-Mikah ❤️