Chapter 23

I back out from the garage with the BMW 3 Series. When out of the garage, I turn back off the engine, then get out.

I close the door, lean on the car and light a cigarette to calm myself down as I think about what just happened. How come I didn't hear the attacker come inside the house or how didn't I catch him inside when looking around?

He didn't seem to be good at fighting; and I'm not saying I'm good at it...anyway, if he can't fight why attack me when I was clearly armed? No, that's a dumb question, it's pretty obvious, it doesn't even need to be answered.

I need to be the on the look out; I'm pretty sure he wasn't alone, even tho he had nothing on him other than his hammer, which I took before leaving the house.

As I was waiting for the guys, I had a bad gut feeling, and no, it's nothing like diarrhea or constipation or shit like that; I mean the gut feeling. I always trust my gut feeling, so I take my rifle off of my shoulder and check the mag, then cock it back, ready to shoot if necessary.

I continue to smoke while looking around alert. Eventually, Lee comes out of the house he tried his luck in.

"Hey. Got something good?" I ask him.

"I guess..." pauses to open the duffle bag. He opens the bag and shows what he manages to bag. "A box of tea leaves; uh, 2 jackets; um, a pair boots for Clem; few bottles of beers; and 10 onions." Lee lists what he found.

"That's good." I say with a smile and pat his shoulder.

...

...

"You're not gonna ask what I found?" I ask him.

"A car. I can see it, man." He says without looking at me.

"You're still angry about that woman, bro?"

Lee shakes his head and looks further away. I shake my head as well, and scoff.

"That's all human's life for you? A scoff?"

"What are you even on about, man?" I ask him, starting to get irritated with Lee.

"You...you just let her to die. With all those walkers...It's fucked up!" He said, raising his voice at the end.

"You know that Kenny agreed with me as well, right?" I ask him as I look deeply in his eyes.

Lee stays quiet.

"Tsk. Man...We did what we had to do. To keep us alive- you saw how many of those fuckers were there. She kept screaming, attracting the walkers to her, so we took the chance and kept her alive to buy us time to get back to the others...To Clem, Duck, Carley, Katja..."

"I- tsk..fuck." He stumbles on his words. He doesn't know what to say.

Our conversation stops there, and we stand around in silence as we wait for Kenny.

Then suddenly, to me unexpectedly, Lee speaks up. "What the fuck has happened to your face anyway?"

"Huh?" I mutter confused, then I remember. I actually forgot I got my face beaten. I touch my nose lightly which causes me to take a sharp breath. Yeah, I forgot to feel the pain; tell how is that possible?

"A guy was in the house, and ambushed me." I say with a shrug, acting indifferent, when in reality I'm fucking pissed and embarrassed.

"...And where's he?"

"I killed him, what do you think where's he? Look what he did to my face!" I raised my voice.

Lee sighs, not wanting to mention him murdering someone. He's kinda acting like a hypocrite, as he had killed someone before; tho it was an accident, it was still murder.

"Does it hurt?" He asks; with caring in his eyes which he tries to conceal.

"Nah..." I shake my head, still keeping my act up about bearing the pain. I take another drag of my cigarette, trying to distract myself from the pain.

Our conversation shifts to a more casual tone as we wait for Kenny to join us. 

Eventually, Kenny emerges from another building, carrying a bag filled with supplies.

"Found 5 cans of tuna; some painkillers; some...plan B, if you know what I mean; and a kitchen knife." Kenny looks at my fucked up face, and raises an eyebrow. "You get in a fight with a wall?"

This brings a chuckle out of us. "Yeah, something like that..." I say.

We spend a few more moments gathering ourselves and preparing to move on. As we pack up inside my new car, I can't help but notice that my bad gut feeling has disappeared. I frown at this, but regardless, I'm glad that nothing bad happened...yet.

We get inside the car; with me driving, Kenny passenger, and Lee in the back. I ignite the engine, and pull out from the street, and start heading back.

On the way back, we passed several walkers, hit some on accident as well. Yes, accidentally; you know, I don't want to dirty my new whip too much too quickly.

We travel quietly, only hearing the engine, and feeling how the vehicle is rolling on the road, sometimes turning to evade something.

But our calm doesn't last long as a person stumbles out on the road. Opening my eyes wide, I step on the break; causing the tires to make a loud screeching sound.

My eyes continue to stay wide as I recognize the girl that I almost hit; she looks just like Emma Bell, or...Amy. Andrea's sister.

I see that Kenny got tense, and instantly reached for his waist. I didn't stop him, as I'm cautious as well, tho I don't feel like we're in danger.

She falls to her knees, and I can see that she's quite skinny, and maybe dehydrated as well. She must've been wandering around for a while now. We also quite far away from the motel, and from the drug store as well; aaand from the point where Andrea was picked up by Kenny. They got separated quite seriously.

"She looks like Andrea...kinda doesn't she?" Lee mentions Andrea. It seems he noticed too.

"Is she?" Kenny is a bit sceptical.

"Shall we find out?" I say as I grab my rifle, Kenny his revolver, and Lee his Akdal Ghost TR01; you might be wondering how Lee got his hand on this Glock copy, well...a Turkish immigrant walker. That simple.

We get out of my car, we all ponting our guns on Amy. I already know that this girl is Amy, but I need to make sure that it's her so that Lee and Kenny can br okay with her.

"Hello....can you tell us your name?" I ask her.

"A-A-Amy..." she says exhausted. "Please...h-help me..." she says with teary eyes.

I ignore her plead, and ask another thing. "Are you with a group?"

"A-After separating from my sister....I-I was w-with a camp...I don't k-know where....but-but now I'm a-alone."

"Sister, huh? What's her name?" Kenny asks.

"A-Andrea." She obediently replies.

"Andrea what?" Lee asks.

"Andrea R-Redwood" she says. (I dorn know their last name, so I decided with Redwood)