3 months later

A lone walker sat hunched over the corpse of a small woodland creature in the middle of the forest, it's rotting hands ripping into it's tiny body and pulling out it's insides before pulling it towards it's mouth, waiting to finally dig into it's meal. A twig snapped behind it, making it stop what it was doing and slowly turn around to face whatever had just approached it from behind.

Lee stood up from his crouching position and lifted his axe over his head before bringing it down on the back of the walker's head, killing it. Lee put his boot to the walker's back and kicked off of it, releasing the weapon from it's skull. With the walker being taken care of and no longer in their way, it was now safe for Jack and Mark to join him as both of them approached him from behind and stopped on his sides.

Mark held his rifle close and frowned at the small woodland creature the walker had chewed up and ripped apart into pieces, "Dammit, what did they get this time?"

Lee looked down at the remains of a woodland creature to get a better look at it, "Looks like a rabbit."

"Well, that's another meal lost." Mark sighed, ignoring the growl his stomach had just let out.

"A rabbit hardly's a meal." Lee stated.

"It still is a meal." Jack pointed out, now wearing a Classic B-3 Sheepskin Leather Bomber Jacket over his old clothes, "Considering our food situation, even a tiny bit of food could make some change."

"I hear ya." Mark nodded in agreement as he and the others started walking down the path, "I still can't believe we went through all that commissary food in three months! It seemed like so much at the time."

"Maybe you shouldn't have opened the door." Lee stated.

"Yeah, except then I'd probably be food right now. Trust me, I have no regrets!" Mark replied, "Our poor food situation is not a joke. About a week ago, I heard your friend Doug laying in bed just naming types of pie. It was driving me nuts. I think he's starting to lose it."

"This isn't all." Jack added as Lee and Mark looked at him, "A few days ago when Andre accidentally grabbed Carley's rations, it looked like she was about to kill him before Doug stopped her."

"We're all on edge. Just cut them some slack." Lee told them both, referring to Doug and Carley.

"Yeah, you're right." Mark agreed, "I wish I knew for sure how much food we have left."

"Not enough." Lee replied, "According to Lilly we've just about hit the last of our food reserves. Some people might have to go without tonight."

Mark shook his head, "You mean "Lilly's Lottery" again. Kenny is gonna be pissed."

"You think Kenny and Andre are having any better luck out here than we are?" Jack asked once Kenny was mentioned by Mark.

"I sure hope so." Lee replied as Mark silently nodded in agreement.

"Yeah, between the lack of food and Kenny and Lilly fighting all the time, things are getting pretty tense back at the motor inn." Mark stated as he shifted his gaze to Jack, "You and Larry often joining them in their arguments is not helping. Can't you just stop?"

"There's one way to make me stop." Jack gave him his answer.

Mark raised his brow, "What is it?"

"Make them change." Jack gave him an honest answer.

"I see." Mark said in understanding, letting out a sigh, "You know Kenny's been talking about taking off if he can get that RV running."

"I know." Jack replied as Mark looked at him with a questioning look on his face, "He asked me about his idea after I overhead him and Lilly arguing about it."

"What did you said to him?" Mark asked out of curiosity.

"I agreed with him. This place isn't as safe as it used to be back when all of this started. Staying here is a disaster waiting to happen. Leaving the motel as soon as possible is our best option right now." Jack replied as Mark nodded in understanding, seeing a point in his way of thinking, "He was happy to hear my answer. Lilly was much less happy, though."

Mark nodded in understanding and looked at Lee, "What do you think, Lee?"

"Kenny's got a wife and son to look out for." Lee replied.

"And they're safest in a big group. Going out on his own will get them all killed." Mark stated, "Can't blame him, though... Did you hear Larry going off on him last night? What's the old guy's deal, anyway? Seems like he's got a problem with you in particular."

Lee stayed silent for a few seconds, thinking of an answer as Jack looked at Lee with a curious look on his face, wondering what Lee was going to say in answer. He and Andre already suspected the reason of Larry's hostility towards Lee, despise Lee getting him the pills back at the drugstore. Neither of them asked him about it, yet, though.

"Larry's just looking out for his daughter." Lee replied a few seconds later, voicing what he thought about Larry to Mark and Jack.

"Hey, I know Lilly. She can take care of herself. He needs to take that energy and put it towards finding us some more food." Mark replied as he and Jack exchanged glances, both of them suprised Lee actually defended Larry after the way he treated him during those last three months, "And I know Lilly thinks he's getting weaker, but the guy's all muscle! He's a walking piledriver! I know I wouldn't want to be stuck in a room with him! And didn't he punch you in the face one time?"

Lee's mind flew to the time when Larry knocked him down and left him to die in the drugstore, "Knocked me flat."

It was when Mark noticed a crow fly past him, Lee and Jack. Mark crouched down as a crow perched itself on top of a tree branch, doing his best not to scare it away. He stopped behind a low rock and looked through the scope of his rifle as Lee and Jack followed his example himand crouched down. They waited for Mark to steady his aim, and take the shot.

"Can you make that shot?" Jack asked.

"It's a long shot. I'd hate to waste the bullets." Lee added

"Trust me. If I don't think I can hit it, I won't." Mark assured them.

He closed his eyes and pulled the trigger a second later. His rifle fired, a deafening shot echoeding through the woods, startling the crow. The starled crow took off, Mark's bullet missing it's target. Jack and Lee were about to say something about it, but were interrupted by a man yelling in pain somewhere in the distance. Their heads snapped to the direction of the noise.

"Shit, was that Kenny or Andre?!" Mark asked in alarm.

"I don't know. It didn't sound like either of them." Jack replied as he got himself into a standing position, looking around himself in alarm.

"Come on!" Lee screamed as he stood up and held his axe tightly.

Lee, Jack and Mark pushed themselves into a run and sprinted through the forest, trying to find the source of the scream. They stopped for a second and looked around themselves for a second before hearing another scream. Lee, Mark, and Jack headed in the direction of the scream and were greeted by the sight of three survivors. Two of them appeared to be teenagers while the third was an adult man. The boys were attempting to help the man out of a bear trap that had latched onto his leg. One of the teenagers had black hair while the other had a light brown colour.

"Jesus Christ." Mark shook his head upon seeing the position the older man was in, allerting the teenagers of his and his group's presence.

"Oh, shit! No, no, please don't kill us! We just want to help our teacher! We'll leave, I swear!" The teenager with black hair shouted.

"Lee! Jack! You guys okay?" Kenny asked, having just arrived at the scene with Andre.

"Do you know what's happening?" Andre asked, wielding his shotgun. The police officer continued to wear his uniform along with the overcoat that he kept stored in the trunk of his cruiser.

"Get it off! Get it off, goddamn it! Get it off me!" The man pleaded, clutching his leg in pain.

"Travis, maybe they can help!" The other boy with brown hair added.

"These might be the same guys that raided our camp and we barely got away from that!" Travis replied fearfully.

"What guys?" Mark asked.

"It's okay. We're not the guys you're afraid of." Andre tried to assure the scared teenager that he and his group meant no harm to him and his group, "I'm a police officer. We can help you!"

"Andre's right." Jack added, "We're gonna hurt you."

"Why the fuck is there a bear trap out here?!" Kenny exclaimed.

"I'm asking myself the same thing, Ken." Jack shook his head, "I know we didn't put it here."

"Don't listen to them, Ben!" Travis shouted at his friend, "Please, just let it go! We're not a threat to you!"

"Kid, chill out! We'll try to help you, but you've got to shut the fuck up!" Kenny told Travis to calm down.

"Who raided your camp?!" Jack asked.

"I-I don't know! Guys with guns!" Ben stuttered out.

"What the hell happened?" Lee asked.

"Mr. Parker said we should stay off the streets! We were trying to be careful but..." Ben's answer was interrupted by Mr. Parker whimpering in pain.

"Lee, this is fucked up. We've gotta help 'em." Mark insisted.

Jack nodded in agreement, "We can't just leave them out here."

"Yeah." Andre voiced his agreement, "Think if it was us back on the streets of Macon."

"Please!" Ben pleaded.

Travis looked angrily at his friend, "Ben, shut up! My dad was Special Forces, I know what I'm doing!"

"Just see if you can get him out!" Ben asked for their help anyway, "After that you can leave us or whatever, I don't care! Please!"

"We gotta get him out of there." Lee replied, knowing helping these strangers was the right thing to do.

"Oh God, thank you!" Mr. Parker replied, his voice was so shaky because of the pain he was in right now.

"Fine, but you've got to hurry." Kenny added.

"Hurry, please hurry!" Mr. Parker pleaded as Mark crouched down and examined the trap. His heart almost sank as he discovered the trap had been tampered with.

He looked up at his group, wanting to inform them about his recent discovery, "Guys, this trap's been altered. There's no release latch."

Jack shook his head, "Shit."

"Oh, no." Travis whispered in horror as more walkers started to appear in the area.

"Shit! Walkers! It's now or never, Lee." Kenny warned.

"Andre, get the boys back! Kenny and Mark keep those walkers off of me! Jack, help me find a way how to free him." Lee ordered as he and Jack knelt down in front of the trap to take a better look at the damage the trap had done to the man's leg, seeing that it was deep in his skin, forming a pool of blood under his leg, "Oh, fuck."

"This is bad." Jack shook his head after taking a good look at the trap, "Really bad."

"How do we get him out?!" Andre asked.

"Guys. Do something." Mark added.

"How the fuck do you get these things open?!" Jack asked, having never have to deal with a trap like this.

"We don't know!" Mr. Parker replied before letting out a painful cry, "Aah, God!"

Lee set his axe down and attempted to pry them apart, but as he did, the blades only seemed to dig deeper into Mr. Parker's leg which only caused more pain for the trapped man.

"Arghh! Stop, stop, stop!" Mr. Parker screamed in pain as Lee released the trap from his grasp and picked up his axe. He decided to do same thing in an attempt to free Mr. Parker from the trap, but this time with an axe. He placed the head of the axe in between the edges of the trap and pulled, hoping that with enough strength, he could still force it open. Again, the pain became too much for Mr. Parker as he begged Lee to try something else.

"All that blood and screaming, we're gonna be surrounded any minute!" Kenny stated as he fired his rifle at the approaching walkers.

"Hurry!" Andre added as he stayed in the back with Travis and Ben, holding his shotgun in ready just in case the walkers will get close enough to them, "They're getting closer!"

"Lee. Just cut off his leg!" Jack said after taking another look at the trap, knowing they were extremely low on time right now and knowing it was their only way if they wanted to save Mr. Parker's life, even if the chances of him surviving the loss of his leg were extremely slim.

"What?! You can't do that!" Travis shouted at Jack, not wanting to see his teacher hurt so badly, "We can't just chop off the tree the chain is attached to?"

"I wish we could try it, but we don't have enough time." Jack told the teenager, getting up from his kneeling position.

Lee sighed as he got himself into a standing position, knowing Jack was right. He wished it didn't have to come to this and knew how risky it was, because Mr. Parker could have died from blood loss, but knew it was the only thing they could do right now if they even wanted to try to save Mr. Parker's life.

He frowned at Mr. Parker, looking at him with a pitful look on his face, "I'm gonna have to cut you out."

"No, no, no." Mr. Parker's face went pale, "Try the trap again! Anything, please!"

"Just do it, Lee!" Mark shouted.

Lee brought the axe down hard onto the man's leg a few inches below his knee. Mr. Parker screamed in agony at the explosions of pain that went through his body right now, blood splashing from his leg as Lee brought the axe down for the second time and third time. He brought the axe down for the fourth and final time and with that Mr Parker's leg was chopped in half. Mr. Parker looked at his at his leg for a second before passing out from blood loss. Mark and Travis walked over to Lee.

"Oh god." Travis covered his mouth and went away to vomit.

"Shit...is he?" Mark asked.

"He passed out." Lee stated.

"If he's alive, grab him and let's go!" Kenny shouted.

Mark grabbed Mr. Parker and lifted his unconscious body up before placing him over his shoulder. He began making his way in the direction of the motor inn, with Kenny and Jack following closely behind him.

Andre ran over to Travis who was composing himself after throwing up and grabbed him by his shoulder, "Stay close to us. You don't want to be left behind with so many of those things around."

Andre and Travis made their way to where Lee and Ben were waiting for them. Once they made their way to Lee and Beb, the four of them quickly followed Jack, Mark, Kenny and Mr. Parker, making their way back to the motor inn.

-----

The Motor Inn was quiet at the moment. This place was as safe as the group could make it with their resources. What was once the entrance to the motel's parking lot, a major gap in their defenses, was now replaced with a low wooden wall and large, blue dumpsters took up certain parts of the wall, making a great defense for the walkers as they were heavy enough to hold back the undead.

Lilly looked down to see what her group was doing right now as she sat on top of the RV, keeping watch right now. Not much was happening right now. Her fellow members of the group were doing their daily routines. Larry was working on reinforcing the wall and Katjaa watched over Clementine and Duck, having made this her job whenever she wasn't busy taking care of the medical related stuff.

Doug and Carley were talking with each other, having private conversation with each other as they have entered a relationship a while ago. The majority of the group was happy to see them begin their relationships because it was giving them a sense of normality. Lilly personally didn't care about it as she never cared about this kind of stuff.

Clementine and Duck were close to the RV right now in the place where the kids usually hanging out with each other the group had set up for them. Duck was coloring and Clem had taken a break from coloring and started to kick a soccer ball into two metal barrels over and over again while Katjaa kept watching over them, having nothing else to do right now.

It was when her attention was brought towards the forest as she heard some bushes rustling. She stood up and grabbed her rifle, aiming it towards the source of the noise, ready to shoot if she will have to. She whistled, letting everyone at the motor inn know she heard something suspicious. Everyone immediately reacted to her whistle and got down. It was when Lee and Jack rushed out of the forest, followed by two teenagers she didn't know.

"Get the gates open! We've got wounded!" Lee shouted as Mark came out of the forest, carrying a one legged man.

Lilly lowered her rifle, her expression going from confused to irritated, "Shit. What the hell are they doing?"

"Come on! Come on!" Jack shouted to Mark.

"Oh my god." Katjaa muttered when she saw Mr Parker as Doug quickly rushed over to the gate and pushed it open.

"Where should I put him?" Mark asked, having just entered the motor inn,

Katjaa pointed at the trunk of the truck, "Here."

"Who the hell are these people?!" Larry demanded to know. His voice was so loud that it wouldn't let Mark hear Katjaa's reply.

"Who's that?" Duck asked.

"What's going on?" Carley wanted to know what was going on right now.

"We don't have time to explain right now." Andre replied as he entered the safety of the motor inn and quickly moved to help Mark with Mr. Parker.

"Get him into the truck," Katjaa told Mark as she looked at the injured man while holding onto her son. Mark and Andre laid Mr. Parker on the trunk of the truck, "I will see what I can do."

"Kat, can you fix him?" Kenny asked his wife as he was the last one from the hunting group to enter the motor inn, Doug closing the gate behind him.

She looked at him, "Jesus, Ken! I... I don't know!"

"Lee! Lee!" Lilly called out for Lee to gain his attention. Once she was sure she had his attention, she continued in a stern tone, "What the hell?! You can't just be bringing new people here! What are you thinking?!"

"Hey, you wanna calm down for a fucking minute?" Kenny asked her, much to Larry's displeasure.

Larry pointed his finger at Kenny, "Hey! Watch your mouth!"

"No, I don't!" Lilly responded with the same angry tone as she bad before and turned back towards Lee, "I want to know why you thought bringing more mouths to feed was a good idea?!"

"This man would have died if it wasn't for Lee." Andre said before Lee could answer.

Larry shrugged his shoulders as he looked at the police officer, "So? Who cares?"

"We are NOT responsible for every struggling survivor we come across!" Lilly told Lee and Andre, "WE have to focus on OUR group! Right here, right now."

"Is that a fact?" Jack glared at her as he stepped towards Lilly and got right in her face, "Then, what about with happened at the pharmancy? We could have just walked away and focus on our own group instead of doing our best to get the pills for your dad and what did this asshole do in return? He punched Lee in the face and left him to die!"

"Now, just hang on a second" Doug said before Lilly could answer as she saw Larry take a few steps towards Jack, not wanting this already bad situation to escalate, "You can't just throw them out."

"Doug's right." Carley agreed, "We haven't even talked to these people yet! They might be useful!"

"Come on, Lilly. These are people! People just trying to survive, just like us, we've got to stick together to survive!" Mark shouted.

Lilly looked at Mark, "The only reason you're here is because you had food. Enough for all of us. But that food is almost gone, we've got maybe a week's worth left." She shifted her gaze to Ben and Travis, "And I don't suppose you guys are carrying any groceries, are you?"

"Um, no." Ben awkwardly replied.

Travis narowed his eyes at Lilly, "Do we look like we do?"

"Dude, not now." Ben nervously tried to get his friend to calm down and glanced back at Lilly, ""L-listen we'll leave whenever Mr Parker is fixed up...if we're that much of a hassle."

"After you use some of our medical supplies? Fucking snakes." Larry growled.

"Fine. You guys fight it out, then." Mark sighed, defeated in this matter as he turned to look at Travis and Ben, "Welcome to the family, kids."

"He's right. I'm sick of your constant fights. It's not helping us in our poor food situation and everyone is just annoyed by them." Andre said as Mark walked away and made his way to the fence. He walked off to do his own thing, waiting for the another argument between Lilly, Kenny, Jack and Larry to end as he knew there was no way of stopping it. He tried to end their arguments a few times in the first weeks of all of this but his attempts were always for nothing.

Clementine walked up next to Ben and Travis and tugged on Ben's sleeve, "Come over here and see what I drew."

"What? No, I..." Ben was reluctant to follow.

"Just come on, okay?" Clementine pulled a little harder, forcing him to follow as Travis reluctantly followed them. She knew, just like everyone else, about the fights Kenny, Jack, Lilly and Larry were getting themselves into and knew it was best for new people to not get involved. Duck followed them while Katjaa went to work on Mr. Parker's decapitated limb.

"You know, you like to think you're the leader of this little group, but we can make our own goddamn decisions! This isn't your own personal dictatorship!" Kenny stepped towards Lilly, "Jack is right. It was different when it was your DAD, but when it's someone else we just fuck them and leave them to die?"

"Oh, come on! You're being dramatic! Everything always turns into a power struggle between you two! I'm not gonna be a part of that!" Carley stated as Kenny and Lilly looked at her. Jack and Larry didn't look at her, continuing to glare at each other, "And you two can't go an HOUR without finding something to fight about!" She walked off, taking Doug's hand and him with her, taking one last glance at them, "Why don't you all just give it a rest?!"

"Hey, I didn't ask to lead this group! Everyone was happy to have me distributing the food when there was enough to go around, but now that it's running out, suddenly I'm a goddamn Nazi!" Lilly argued as Carley and Doug walked off together.

"It doesn't matter who's in charge!" Lee voiced his thoughts on this matter, deciding to stay neutral in this argument, "Those people are here now. I guess we just have to decide what happens next."

"No, Lee, it does matter! One person can't be in charge of everything! You know, it might feel safe for you to sit on the fence, but sooner or later you're gonna have to decide whose side you're on." Kenny told Lee what he thought about his opinion as he turned away from him and walked off towards the RV, vanishing from their view behind the vehicle.

Larry was angry with everyone at the motor inn at this point, "I don't see any of you stepping up to make the hard decisions! My girl's got more balls than all of you combined!"

Jack smirked at him, "More than you? I appreciate the honesty, Larry."

"Why you...!" Larry shouted angrily at him.

Lilly turned to look at her dad, not wanting him to her overworked, "Dad, please. Why don't you go help Mark with the wall?"

Larry glared at Lee and Jack for one last time before calming himself down. He turned away from them and made his way to where Mark was working on the wall. Jack felt like hitting Larry when the older man bumped into Doug. The blond haired young man let out a sigh and walked away from Lilly and Lee, wanting to calm himself down from the argument.

"You think this is easy for me?" Lilly asked after making sure her dad won't hear her, "Everyone's starting to hate me because I'm the one that rations the food. But nobody else wants to!"

She turned away from Lee and walked over to a backpack that rested next to the tire of the TV as Lee followed her. She unzipped the backpack and reached into it, pulling out a few supplies from there.

"You know what? I'm not doing it tonight." She turned back to Lee and held her hands out to him. In her hands were were two packets of cheese and crackers, a piece of jerky and half of a red apple, "You do it. There's today's food rations, but there's not enough for everyone. Good luck."

Lee reluctantly grabbed the food from Lilly's hands as Lilly headed up the roof of the RV, getting back on watch. Lee looked down at the five snacks in his hands, knowing they were the only meals for today. Feeling how everyone had their eyes on him, Lee looked around himself to see how everyone were looking at him. Some of their eyes were filled with pity, some with remorse, most with hunger. He sighed, knowing he had to choose who was going to get something to eat today right now.