The Fence
"Hey, get up."
The sound of an unknown male voice woke Jack up from his slumber. He let out a yawn as he opened his eyes and saw an unknown man with a moustache standing above Lee and Clementine. He stretched his rams as he got up from his sleeping spot, feeling slightly better than last night after a having a good sleep. Lee and Clementine followed his example and got up from their sleeping spots as well, having been woken up by this man as well.
"I'm itchy." Clementine stated, scratching her left hand with her right one.
"Well, you slept in the barn, little lady. Lucky you don't have spiders in your hair." The unknown man explained as he looked at Clementine. Clementine gasped and immediately checked if she had any spiders in her hair, "But I bet your daddy scared'em all away, huh?"
"I'm not her dad." Lee explained as Jack walked over to them, "Name's Lee."
"I'm Kenny." The man now named Kenny introduced himself to Lee and Clementine and shifted his gaze to Jack, "What about you?"
"I"m Jack." Jack introduced himself to him, "Nice to meet you."
It was when a boy only a couple years older than Clem appeared around the barn door. He set his eyes on Kenny with an excited look on his face, "Dad! We're gonna build a fence! There's a tractor and everything!"
"We better get going or we won't hear the end of it." Kenny stated with a smile on his face as the boy ran off towards the fence. The entire group left the barn right after, "That's my boy, Ken Junior. We call him Duck, though."
Lee raised his brow at the odd choice of a name, "Duck?"
"Quite an unusual nickname." Jack stated, looking at Kenny with a mixture of curiosity and amusement on his face.
"Yeah. Nothing bothers him. Like water off a duck's back, y'know." Kenny explained as Lee and Jack exchanged glances with each other, admiring the positive aspect of that.
"That's a valuable trait lately." Lee stated as Jack nodded in agreement.
"No kidding. But frankly, I think it's because he's dumb as a bag of hammers." Kenny joked.
"Daaad!" Duck called out for Kenny in a whiny tone, not helping his case.
"But he makes up for it with enthusiasm." Kenny smiled as the group stopped at the front porch where Duck and a woman who must have been his mother and Kenny's wife waited.
"The words is you were on your way to Macon." Kenny asked Lee.
Lee nodded in confirmation, "My family is from there."
"Well, Macon's on the way and personally, I'd appreciate of a guy who can knock a couple of heads." Kenny offered to take Lee and Clementine to Macon with him and his family.
Lee smiled at the offer, nodding his head, "Sure. We'll tag along."
"It's a plan then." Kenny smiled back and looked at Jack, "What about you? Will you tag along?"
"I'll think about it" Jack gave him his answer with a nod of his head, making a mental note to think about this.
"Alright." Kenny said in understanding and turned around to look at his wife and son, "Honey, Duck, this is Lee, Jack and uh, what's the girls name?"
"Clementine." Lee replied as Clementine hid behind his leg.
"Clementine." Kenny repeated after Lee.
Katjaa smiled kindly at Clementine, "That is a very pretty name."
"Thanks." Clementine smiled back.
Shawn walked over to the group, "Well, we should get to work. We've all seen what those things can do so the faster we will get this fence up the better."
"I want to build a fence." Duck declared with excitement evident on his voice.
Shawn looked at Duck and smiled, "Well? Yeah I need a good foreman. You can sit on the tractor and yell at me whenever I take water break."
"On the tractor? Cool?" Duck cheered, clearly looking forward to it.
"Duck and I will hop to it." Shawn told the rest as he and Duck turned away from everyone else and started to make their way towards the fence.
The group split up to do their own a second later. Clementine sat down next to Katjaa and the two of them started talking with each other about Clementine's school and Kenny walked over to his car and started working on something in the front, probably checking if the car was good to go, leaving both Lee and Jack alone with their business. Lee used this as a chance to look around the place in the daylight, getting to know his surroundings a bit better and he saw Chet minding his own business int he distance.
"What is Chet doing here?" Lee asked as soon as he laid his eyes on Chet. A confused look formed on his face when he uttered those words as he shifted his gaze to Jack, "I thought you and Andre walk..." His words died in his throat before he finished the sentence. The grim look on Jack face quickly made him quickly why Chet was still on the farm, "Oh, I see..."
Jack shook his head, "I don't even want to think what the poor guy is going through."
"Me too." Lee nodded in agreement, "Was it bad out there? When you reached the house?"
"Yeah." Jack nodded, not wanting to go into details as he knew it would be better for Lee if she didn't know about Chet's mother having her stomach ripped open by the undead. He pointed at Lee's leg, wanting to change the subject of the conversation, "What about your leg? It was in a pretty bad shape last night."
"I'm doing better right now." Lee replied as he glanced down at his leg for a second, "Thanks to Hershel's help."
Jack nodded at him, "I'm glad to hear it."
Lee held his hand out towards him, "I don't think we had the pleasure to introduce ourselves to each other. My name is Lee Everett."
"Jack Weaver. Nice to finally introduce myself to you." Jack nodded at him, grabbing Lee's hand into his and giving it a shake. He pulled away from him a second later and looked at him with an interested look on his face, "What happened with your leg yesterday to make it look so messed up, though?"
Lee cringed a bit at the question, "Car accident. I was getting out of Atlanta. I think you know what happened next."
"Yeah." Jack said in understanding, finding the answer to be quite obvious as he shifted his gaze from Lee to Clementine for a second, "What about the girl? How did you find her?"
Lee wasted no time and gave him an explanation, "She was hiding in the treehouse of the house I had taken shelter in after getting out the car wreck. She saved my life as I was attacked by one of the walkers..."
Jack raised his brow at the name, "Walkers?"
"Yeah." Lee nodded in confimation and quickly explained why he choose to name those things like that, "All they seem to do is walk."
Jack nodded at him with a thoughtful look on his face, "Alright. Seems fitting."
Lee nodded back at him and went back to his explanation, "As I was saying, I was attacked by one of the walkers and she came in to save me. She gave a hammer and I used it to, you know."
"Yeah. I know what you're saying." Jack said in understanding and looked at him questioningly, "So. You're from Macon?"
Lee nodded in confirmation, "Born and raised. I want to head down there and see if my family is alright."
"I see." Jack once again voiced his understanding to Lee's words and voiced his hopes for him, "I hope your family will be alright."
"Thanks." Lee nodded at him gratefully before looking at him questioningly, "What about you? Are you from around here?"
Jack shook his head, "No. I'm from Louisiana."
"Louisiana?" Lee's eyes widened a bit at this information, "You're a long way from home."
Jack nodded in agreement, letting out a sigh, "You're telling me. It took me about two days to reach this area."
"What are you doing here?" Lee asked out of curiosity.
"I was on the way to my cousin's wedding in Pennsylvania." Jack explained, rubbing the back of his head as he let out a sigh, "I don't think I will reach it anytime soon because of I think you what. The same goes for me coming back home."
"Yeah. I know what you're saying." Lee nodded in understanding, letting out a sigh himself as he looked at Jack with a sympathetic and wishful look on his face, "Let's hope everything will calm down soon and you'll be able to come back home."
Jack nodded back at him with a grateful look on his face, "Yeah. Here's hoping."
"Are you attending college?" Lee asked, using this conversation as a chance of getting to know Jack a bit better, "You seem to be around that age."
Jack nodded in confirmation, "Yes. I'm studying linguistics. Was planning to go into teaching after that."
Lee's eyes widened a bit in interest at this, "You wanted to a teacher?"
"Yup." Jack once again nodded in confirmation and raised his brow at him in a curious manner, "Why are you asking?"
"I used to teach up at the University of Georgia." Lee explained.
Jack's eyes widened a bit in interest, showing equal interest as Lee did towards him as he smiled at him slightly, "Really?"
Lee smiled back at him, "Yeah. For around six years."
"I see. Good to know." Jack crossed his arms with his smile growing a bit, "Perharps you could give me some teaching tips while we'll be hanging out around each other until the situation calms down. You know what they say. Learning from an expert is always the best kind of lesson."
"I'd like that." Lee chuckled a bit, keeping his smile on his face as he turned away from Jack, "Thanks for this talk. I'll go check on the others."
"Yeah. I'll talk with you later." Jack nodded at him, uncrossing his arms as he turned away from him while Lee walked away from him to take care of his own business.
With his conversation with Lee having ended, Jack looked around himself as he tried to decide who he should talk with right now. He young man set his eyes on Andre who was leaning against his police cruiser a second later. It was when he found himself thinking back to the way Andre had looked at Lee the night before when they arrived at the farm. He recalled how Andre narrowed his eyes at him almost as if he knew him from somewhere. Jack decided it was the perfect time to finally address this with Andre.
The blond haired young man walked over to to Andre, wanting to make sure if Andre really knew something Lee or if his eyes were playing a trick on him yesterday, "Hey Andre."
"Jack." Andre nodded at him, "Do you need anything?"
"Can I talk with you about something?" Jack asked.
"Sure." Andre nodded, "What is it?"
"It's about Lee." Jack revealed the question he had on his mind to him, "I saw the look you gave him yesterday when we arrived at the farm and it got me curious. Do you know him from somewhere?"
"I see." Andre said in understanding after Jack revealed to him the topic he wanted to discuss with him, "I see no point in hiding away from you if you already noticed something off, then." He sighed, "Lee is a convicted murderer."
"What?" Jack exclaimed in suprise, making sure to as quiet as he could be because he didn't want to attract the other's attention. as his eyes widened. He didn't know Lee very well but if he was honest with himself, he didn't look to him like the type of a person that would kill someone, "Are you sure?"
"Yes." Andre nodded in confirmation, "I first heard about this case during my work and I was following it ever since. I'd recognized him everywhere."
Jack shook his head. He couldn't believe. A convicted murderer was on the same farm right now. He pinched the bridge of his nose and let out a sigh, "Shit."
"Yeah." Andre nodded, understanding why Jack reacted the way he did. He would probably reacted in a similiar way if he was in his place, "Now that you know the truth about Lee, what do you think we should do about him?"
Jack didn't answer to Andre's question straight away as began to wonder what he should do in this matter. Perharps it would be for the best if they confronted him about it as soon as possible. This way they could let him to not try anything that would put all of them in danger. On the other hand, they could give Lee a chance to prove himself to be a good man and not a danger to all of them before confronting him about it.
He didn't got a chance to make his choice and voice his answer to Andrew, though as Shawn's scream came from where he and Duck were working on the fence right now. Everyone at the farm heard it and were instantly alerted by it.
"Go!" Andre shouted. Jack wasted no time as he turned away from him and pushed himself into run in the direction of the scream, "I'll get my shotgun!"
Not wasting any time, Jack quickly made his way to where Shawn and Duck were supposed to be and saw what was happening right now. Duck somehow managed to get the tractor started and ran over Shawn's leg, keeping him pinned to the ground. What made everything worse, a couple of undead were trying to get to him, the fence being the only thing keeping them away from Shawn.
Duck could only watch the events he had accidentally caused in shock. It was when a walker approached him from behind and grabbed him by his shoulders. The walker pulled Duck towards itself, snarling as it did so as Duck let out a fearful scream as he held onto the tractor for his life. Jack shifted his gaze between Shawn and Duck, trying to decide who he should help first as Lee arrived at the scene, beginning to wonder about the same thing. They exchanged glances, knowing they had to act as soon as possible, knowing how short they were on time right now.
"Help Duck!" The blond haired young man shouted, having made his choice on what to do right now as Lee nodded at him to show his understanding of it and went to help Duck, "I'll help Shawn!"
"Get this tractor off of me!" Shawn screamed in pain and looked over to Jack, seeing him running over to help him. Jack did the first thing that came to his mind upon reaching Shawn. He grabbed him arm and began pulling him towards him, but it was no use as the tire was completely pinning his leg to the ground.
It was when Kenny arrived the at the scene. He immediately made hs way to his son and began his attempts of trying to pry him out of the walker's grip. As Kenny continued to attempt to free his son from the walker's grasp, Lee noticed a plank of wood laying nearby. He picked it up from the ground and hit the walker in the head with it. The undead was pushed backwards a little as Kenny used this to his advantage and pulled his son away from the walker's arms, making sure his son was safe.
"Guys!" Jack shouted after seeing how Kenny and Lee managed to help Duck's from the undead's grasp, "Help me!"
Lee's reaction to Jack's call for help was instant. He dropped the plank on the ground and quickly rushed over to him and Shawn as Kenny looked at them for a second before turning away from the scene and running away, keeping his son safe being the only thing on his mind right now. Lee and Jack had no time to react to him running away from the scene, because saving Shawn being their main focus right now.
"Kenny!" Shawn cried out in fear, watching Kenny flee the scene with his son with his arms.
Jack moved to the side a bit as soon as Lee reached him and Shawn as Lee stopped next to him. They quickly exchanged glances and began pushing it together, hoping to get it off Shawn's leg as soon as possible. The tractor was pushed off of Shawn's leg a moment later, freeing him from it's grasp and Lee and Jack moved away from it. Jack grabbed Shawn by his right arm as Lee grabbed Shawn by his left arm and together they dragged Shawn away from the fence.
As the two of them dragged Shawn away from the fence, the fence gave in and broke apart, allowing the walkers to enter the other side of the fence. The undead slowly started to make their way towards the Lee, Jack and Shawn, intending to finish what they had started a few moments earlier.
The walkers never reached their targets, though. It was when Hershel and Andre arrived at the scene, both of them wielding shotguns. Not wasting any time, they opened fire at the undead trying to break the fence. It was only a matter of seconds before all of the walkers on the other side of the fence ended up dead. Andre lowered his smoking shotgun down and sighed, happy to see everyone making out of this situation alive as Hershel looked down at his son.
He knelt down in front of him to take a better look at his leg, "Shawn!"
"Don't worry dad. I'll be fine." Shawn reassured his father. He looked up at Lee and Jack and looked at them with a grateful look on his face, "Lee and Jack saved me." He winced in pain as he held his leg, "My leg hurts."
"Don't get up son." Hershel said, "I'll patch you up. You'll be fine in a few days."
"Dad?" A woman's voice voice sounded behind them, "What's going on? I heard gunsh..." Her words died in her throat when she saw the scene in front of him, "Shawn!" She pushed himself into a run and knelt down next to her father and brother, "What happened?"
"Don't worry about me, Maggie." Shawn assured his sister, "I'll be fine in a few days."
"Maggie." Hershel looked at the young woman now named Maggie, "Can you take Shawn to the house?"
Maggie nodded in understanding and slowly brought her brother back on his feet. She wrapped his arm around him, beginning to take his brother into the farm house where their father would give him a proper treatment. As she proceeded to take his brother to the farmhouse, he passed by Clementine, Kenny, Duck and Katjaa, who just arrived at the scene.
Kenny looked at Hershel with a guilty look on his face right after making his way back to the scene, "I'm sorry."
Hershel's expression shifted into more of a angered one, "What do you mean you're sorry?"
"I panicked." Kenny tried to explain his actions to him, "I saw my son in danger and didn't thought about anything else but saving him."
"Now we shouldn't get mad at each other over what could happen." Andre said before Hershel could respond to Kenny's apology, "What matters is that everyone survived."
Hershel remained silent about Andre's words and shifted his attention from Kenny to Jack and Lee, his expression becoming less angered and more grateful upon setting his eyes on them, "Thank you both for saving my son."
"It was nothing." Lee smiled at Hershel, "Your son helped me yesterday, right?"
Jack smiled at Hershel, nodding his head at the older man, "Saving your son was the least we could do for letting us stay on your farm last night."
Hershel nodded his at them and pushed himself into a walk towards the farmhouse, "I think you should get going in if you want to go to Macon. I need to take care of my son right now. If you will ever need any help, you are welcome to come here. It was a pleasure to see you again Officer Mitchell."
Andre nodded his head at Hershel, "Likewise."
Kenny's guilty expression didn't leave his face until Hershel walked into the farmhouse. After Hershel entered the farmhouse, he shifted his attention to Lee, "You've got that ride to Macon if you want it." Lee nodded his head in a grateful manner as Kenny shifted his gaze from him to Jack and Andre, "What about you you two? Are coming with us or are you going somewhere else?"
"Yes." Jack nodded his head at Kenny's offer as he replied for himself, "I think it will be better to stick around other people during all of this."
Andre shifted his gaze between everyone around him before giving them his answer, "I think I'll tag along as well. At least for now to make sure all of you are safe."
"Alrighty. Let's go." Kenny nodded after Jack and Andre voiced their willingness to come with them to Macon. With this matter settled, the group walked away from the fence and made their way to their vehicles, beginning to prepare themselves to leave for Macon. Jack was about take his seat in the driver's seat of Andre's cruiser, but a voice calling out for him from behind stopped him from doing so.
"Jack!" He turned to the source of the voice and saw Chet walking towards him with a hatchet in his hand.
"Yes?" Jack asked as Chet stopped in front of him.
"I want you to have this. Shawn told me he wants you to have this as well." Chet held the hatchet out to Jack , "It's a thank you gift for me yesterday and saving Shawn back there. I know this isn't much, but at least you will have something to defend yourself from those things."
Jack nodded and took the hatchet from Chet, "Thanks, Chet. I'll make good use of it."
"A shame you and Andre are leaving. If it was up for me, I would let you and your friends stay here for what you did." Chet said as he extended his hand out for a handshake, "Take care of yourself out there, Jack."
"You too Chet." Jack nodded as grabbed Chet's hand and shook it.
Chet shifted his gaze to Andre, "You too Andre."
"I will. Don't worry about me." Andre smiled at Chet. Jack and Chet exchanged one last glance with each other just a second before Chet turned away from Jack and walked back into the farmhouse. As he continued to watch Chet walk away from him, Jack couldn't help but ask himself if he should ask Chet to join them. He decided against that in the end as he knew it would be for the best for him to stay with Shawn's family.
"Is everyone ready to head out?" Kenny asked as his wife, son and Clementine were already in his car.
"You know." Andre began to say. He had one idea in his mind and wanted to share it with the people he was going to Macon with, "I've been thinking about one thing."
"What's on your mind?" Lee wanted to know what Andre had on his mind right now.
"Maybe we should split up once we will reach Macon and later met up in one place." Andre shared the idea he had came up with the group, "This way we could search through more parts of the town and gather more supplies for our group."
Lee looked at Andre with a thoughtful look on his face, thinking about his idea before giving him his thoughts on it, "Your idea is not a bad one, but I think we should stick together for now. We don't know what Macon has in store for us. It can be death trap for all we know. Not all of us have weapons and are able of defending ourselves. It would be better if all of us were together just in case if something went wrong."
"Yeah. I'm with Lee here." Jack voiced his agreement with Lee as Lee smiled at Jack for agreeing with him, "We shouldn't split up until we'll have a safe place to come back to. It will prevent us from getting separated as well."
"I see. I understand your point. Safety is in numbers." Andre said in understanding, "Alright. We won't be splitting up after arriving at Macon."
"Does anyone else have something to take care of before we'll head off?" Kenny asked once the matter of Andre's plan was discussed on.
Nobody answered to his question, meaning all of them were ready to go. Having no reason to stay on the farm for any longer, the group got themselves into their vehicles. Kenny and Lee got themselves into Kenny's truck, with Kenny taking his seat on the driver's seat as Jack and Andre got themselves into Andre's cruiser with the latter taking charge of his vehicle.
With everything on the farm having been taken care of, the group drove out of the farm and started to head towards their next destination. Macon.
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