Lee, Jack, Mark and Doug continued to run until the front gate was in their sights. Doug did his best to keep up with with the rest of his group, but he couldn't stand up straight and his shoulder hurt like hell. The St. John noticed them rushing towards their farmhouse from where they were right now, beginning to make their way towards Lee, Jack, Mark and Doug as they could tell there was something off. Lee and Mark rushed through the fence, followed closely by Doug and Jack. The group of four stopped in their tracks right after they went through the fence and catched their breath, finally finding themselves in safety.

"Guys, what's wrong?" Andy asked, making his over over to them as Lee, Jack, Mark and Doug haven't fully regained their breath.

Jack looked at him angrily, "The electric fence came on! Some people started attacking from the woods and we got trapped between them and the fence!"

"It was a goddamn ambush out there." Lee added, summing up to Andy what happened as he looked equally as pissed as Jack was.

"Why would you turn on the fence in the first place?" Mark wanted to know, "You knew we were out there!"

Danny came out of the farmhouse and ran over to them, immediately noticing an arrow sticking out from Doug's shoulder, "Holy shit! Are you okay?"

"I heard Doug yell and thought y'all were giving me the all clear! Man, I am real sorry." Andy explained himself with a apologetic look on his face.

"Oh, my Lord!" Brenda gasped, standing on the porch, "What happened to you, sweetheart?!

Andy shifted his gaze to his mother, "It was those bastards in the woods, Mama..."

"Yeah..." Doug joined the conversation with a pained look on his face, "I'll... be alright. It could have been worse."

"Hey, y'all!" Kenny's voice rang through everyone's ears, ending their conversation as everyone looked in the direction of the voice. They saw the rest of the group, excluding Carley, Ben and Andre, making their way up the drive. Kenny waved his hand at Lee, Jack, Mark and Doug, making himself known to them.

Katjaa raised her brow, having quickly noticed there was something off about Doug and her eyes widened in concern when she saw a piece of wood sticking out of his shoulder, "Doug! Oh, my God, what happened?!"

"Holy shit, dude." Travis' eyes snapped open upon seeing the state Doug was in, "What happened to you?"

Lee looked at his group and explained what happened to Doug, "He got shot with an arrow."

"Christ! Are you gonna be okay?" Lilly asked as she and her group looked at Doug in concern. Even Larry looked concerned for him.

"Yeah, I'm fine. I should just... pull it out..." Doug tried to assure his group his wound was nothing too severe.

"Oh, no, honey, c'mon, Brenda's got you. C'mon inside now. We'll have you all sorted out." Brenda said as she walked over to Doug and stopped him from pulling the arrow out of his body. She began to lead Doug towards the farmhouse and Katjaa followed them inside, walking next to Brenda, "Well, you must be the veterinarian..."

"What kind of shit is this?" Larry asked with a furious look on his face as he approached Jack, Lee and Mark.

"We ran into some people on the way here," Lee began, "bandits, it seems. I think it was them who attacked us."

Mark nodded, "Yeah, and thank god we were able to get away."

"Yeah. It was pretty bad out there." Jack added.

"They gave us a lot of problems in the beginning, killed a bunch of our farmhands. We were able to get 'em to stop by makin' a deal." Andy explained the group the situation between his family and the bandits.

"You knew about these people?" Kenny asked with a furious look on his face.

Travis crossed his arms, "You couldn't have mentioned them to us back at the motel?"

"Food for protection. Not like we had much of a choice, but they did stop hasslin' us." Danny explained.

"Goddamn it!" Larry shouted angrily, "Carley said this place was locked down tight!"

"Maybe it isn't as safe here as we thought." Lee stated.

Jack shook his head, "So much for your "deal"."

"Those shitheads broke the agreement!" Andy shouted, looking as much angered by this situation as the motor inn group was. He shifted his gaze to Andre and looked at him with a apologetic look on his face, "Look, I'm sorry. If I had any inklin' they were gonna give you guys trouble, we woulda gone out there with you! Listen, we may have had an agreement with those people, but we will not stand for this shit."

Danny nodded in agreement, agreeing with everything his brother had just said, "Ain't no way we're gonna let those sons o' bitches get away with this!"

"You know where these assholes are?" Kenny asked.

"They're hard to pin down, but I think I know where at least one of their camps are." Danny replied as he glanced at Lee, "When you're ready to go scope out that bandit camp, come find us."

"We will." Jack nodded at him as Danny and Andy made their way off to the side to have their own private discussion.

Lilly shook her head after the brothers left them alone, "Bandits? Are you serious? This place isn't safe, we can't stay here."

"Not safe?! This place is a hell of a lot safer than that motor inn! I think all of us and our guns can handle a couple of punks with bows and arrows!" Kenny looked at Lilly with a look filled with disbelief, "What we need to do is find a way to get our whole group out here to stay, take this place over if we have to."

Larry shook his head at the idea, "Whoa! Cool your jets there, Rambo. These are nice people. Let's not do anything to get us thrown out before we eat!"

"We should at least check if this place is safe before the dinner." Mark stated. What happened with Doug and Jack's words from earlier about the meat remained in the back of his mind and something was telling him he should take a good look at the place, "I don't want another Doug situation."

Lee stepped in between anyone could retort to this, "Easy, we don't need to cause trouble here. I'm going to go out and help Dan deal with these bandits."

"I think someone else should go with you." Jack suggested, "It might be too dangerous out there for just the two of you."

Lilly sighed, "I can't believe I'm saying this but Jack is right."

Lee looked at Jack with a thoughtful look on his face and nodded, "Yeah. You're right. It's too dangerous out there for just me and Danny to go. How about you'll go with us?"

"Yeah. I was thinking the same." Jack nodded at him. It was why he suggested this in the first place.

Lee nodded back at Jack and looked around his group, "Me and Jack gonna head out and help Dan deal with these bandits. You guys should try to make friends with Andy and Brenda while I'm gone."

"Well, that's easy. I got charm coming outta my ass." Larry replied with a smug smile on his face, suprisingly agreeing with Lee for once. Lilly, Travis and Mark gave him disturbed looks for this comment.

Lilly deadpanned at him, "Yeah, that's... real charming, Dad."

Mark looked around his group and noticed two people missing, "Where's Ben and Carley?"

"Andre is missing as well." Jack added, having instantly noticed his friend was not with the rest of their group.

"Since they ate a majority of the food on the way back to get us, Carley volunteered to guard the motor-inn with the other two until we get back." Lilly explained as Lee smiled internally in relief. He didn't want to think how would Carley react if she had had seen Doug with that arrow in his shoulder.

Jack raised his brow, "What about Andre?"

Lilly glanced at him and explained further, "He volunteered to stay with them. Carley and Ben gave him the rest of the food they brought with them."

"I see." Jack said in understanding, letting out a sigh. He really wished Andre was with them here right now. They could use his help...

Andy finished a conversation with Danny and walked back to the group from the motor inn, wanting to make an announcement about the fixed swing, "Hey forgot to mention. Before Doug was shot, he fixed up the old swing set with me and Lee if your kids want to have some fun."

"A swing! I love swings! Just like at my tree house! Come on, Duck!" Clementine exclaimed with an excited smile on her face as she and Duck ran over to the swing. Lee smiled at Clementine as she followed Duck to the swing. Clementine stopped in his tracks for a second and looked up at Lee, "Thanks Lee! You're the best!"

"Yeah!" Duck agreed and Lee smiled as Clementine followed Duck to the swing.

With that, the group split up and went in their own. Kenny went over to Duck as his son sat down on the swing as Lee followed him to the swing and stopped next to Clementine who watched as Duck had his turn, waiting for her own turn. Andy and Danny made their way up the hill, on the porch, and inside the house. Lilly and Larry went towards a gazebo on the other edge of the yard.

Mark glanced at Jack with a worried look on his face, "Do you think it's a good idea to go looking for these bandits?"

"It is a good idea." Travis replied for Jack, having stayed behind for a bit as well, "The less of those bandits, the better."

Mark looked slightly suprised by how the teenager spoke of them, "You know you're talking about human lives here, right?"

"I do." Travis nodded in confirmation without hesitation, "You haven't seen what I saw. If you saw, then you would be singing the same song These bandits or whatever, they probably are the same ones that attacked my last camp. The things they did to people...what they made me watch happen...it's sick. You shouldn't trust people straight away nowadays."

"You trusted us, didn't you?" Mark replied as Travis' words got caught in his throat, unable to retort to this with anything. The glasses wearing man sighed at the silence from Travis and looked at Mark, "So I assume you're with Travis here."

"Yes. Either we find them or they come back in force." Jack nodded as Travis smiled slightly at his words.

"Alright, then." Mark agreed. Even if he remained uncertain about it. He shifted his gaze away from Jack for a second and glanced at Lee, "Lee! Do you need me to come with you and Jack?"

"I could come too." Travis offered.

Lee shook his head, "No. Me. Jack and Danny will be enough. The more of us go, the more likely less will come back."

"He's right. You should stay here." Jack nodded in agreement as Mark glanced back at him, "You can do something else while we'll be gone."

Travis nodded at him, slightly disappointed he was not allowed to leave again and suggested, "Alright. Maybe we could check this place."

Mark raised his brow, "You don't trust these people?"

"Yes. I already said what I think about trusting people straight away. People are dangerous. These farmers are hiding something. No one just helps each other without having anything in it for them anymore." Travis confirmed it to him, letting out a sigh as he added, "Too bad Ben and so many of your group have the opposite mindset."

"They just have more faith in people." Mark pointed out to him.

Travis nodded in confirmation, "Exactly. They still think people will show up and will make things better. The truth is things ain't gonna get better. They are going to get worse. Much worse."

"If you say so. We'll just have to see how it all turns out." Mark replied, letting out a sigh at Travis' mindset as he nodded at him, "I'll help you with searching the place. We haven't gotten a chance to check the barn."

"Sweet." Travis smiled at this.

"Go talk with Ken once he'll be done with Duck." Jack told them, "He'll definitely help you with that."

"Alright." Travis said in understanding. He walked over to the wooden fence in front of the farmhouse a second later and leaned against it, waiting for Jack and Lee to leave with Danny and waiting for Kenny to be done with pushing Duck and Mark joined him a second later.

Jack looked over his shoulder at Lee and raised his brow, "Lee? Are we leaving now or do you need a few minutes?"

"Give me a few minutes. I want to push Clementine for a bit." Lee replied.

"Alright. I'm gonna talk with someone, then." Jack said in understanding as Lee nodded in understanding. He pushed himself into walk a second later, making his way away from the inner area of the dairy and made his way to the gazebo where Lilly and Larry currently were. He walked up the stairs as Larry and Lilly looked at him. Neither of them were happy to see him, "Hey, you two."

Lilly crossed her arms, "What do you want?"

Jack raised his hands in a defensive manner, "I'm not here to argue. Alright?"

Larry rolled his eyes, "I find that hard to believe."

"Dad." Lilly scolded her father and looked at Jack questioningly, "What od you want, Jack?"

Jack glanced at Larry, "I just want to talk with your dad."

"Go ahead, then. Talk with him." Lilly told him.

"In private." Jack clarified.

Lilly crossed her arms, "How can I trust you won't try anything to him?"

"Don't worry, Lilly. I can handle him." Larry told his daughter as Lilly glanced at him with an uncertain look on her face. Larry nodded at her, reassuring her that he got this.

"Fine." Lilly reluctantly gave him and left the gazebo, leaving her dad alone with Jack.

"Now, what is so important that you want to talk to me about it in four eyes?" Larry asked Jack with a suspicious look on his face. The dislike he and Jack had for each other was clearly showing on his face right now, "Is this about my daughter or whatever other bullshit you came up with?"

"No." Jack instantly denied it, shaking his head, "It's about Lee."

Larry sighed upon hearing Jack mention Lee, "Great. This is exactly what I needed right now. What do you want to talk about him?"

"I just want to know why you've been treating him like dirt ever since all of this started." Jack explained, "He's done so much for the group over the course of the last three months and your behaviour towards him never changed."

"Of course you're defending him." Larry shook his head with a scowl on his face, "Just like everyone else in this goddamned group. All of you have fallen into his pocket. Even my own daughter seems to have fallen into his pocket. He may have fooled all of you, but I know the truth!"

"For fucks' sake." Jack shook his head, "I don't care what he did before."

Larry paused for a second almost as if his brain had to process what Jack had just said to him, "...You know?"

"Yeah." Jack confirmed, "From Andre. He's been following Lee's case ever since he heard about it for the first time. He told me before our group stumbled upon yours back in Macon and neither of us give a shit about it."

"How come you don't care about what he did?!" Larry asked, "You've been keeping our people around him for all this time without even telling him to not do anything funny. Why didn't Andre do anything either?! He's a police officer for God's sake! He should know these kinds of people are a danger to normal people such as me or my daughter!"

"We thought about confronting Lee about it." Jack revealed, "But ultimately decided to back away from it and see what kind of person Lee is for ourselves. We haven't regretted it ever since. He has proven himself to be a good man and someone who means well to all of us."

"Of course a dumbass like you would have fallen for it." Larry shook his head, "People like him don't change. They just get better at hiding who they really are. I'm the only one in this group who knows it."

"Perhaps you are right. Perhaps Lee is a master of manipulation and we've all fallen into his snares except you." Jack replied, "Or perharps are you trying to convince yourself that he is manipulating all of us into believing he is a good person, because you simply can't accept you were wrong about him? Do you think Lee would try to get along with you if he was a bad person? Do you think he would give you and your daughter something to eat, despise how you were treating him for the past three months if he was a bad person? "

Larry shook his head, knowing Jack was right before refused to admit it to the younger man he despised so much, "Argh, I just need time to think, so how about you leave me the hell alone!"

"Fine." Jack replied, not wanting to push Larry further as he knew it could have resulted into this conversation escalating into something else. The last thing he needed right now was breaking into an argument with Larry. He pushed himself into walk, walking away from Larry and began to leave gazebo. He left the gazebo a second later and Lilly passed him to join her dad back on it, "Your dad would make for a good conspiracy theorist."

Lilly stopped in her tracks and looked over her shoulder at him. She shook her head, "You just don't understand him."

"Maybe I would try to understand him if he wasn't such a dick to everyone." Jack replied, not allowing Lilly to answer this as he found himself out her hearing range a second later. He pushed the gate and walked back into the inner area of the dairy.

Upon making his way back to the inner area of the dairy, Jack glanced at Lee saw he had just finished pushing Clementine on the swing. Lee walked over to Jack a second later and nodded his head at him, letting his know he was ready to head out without saying any words to him. Jack nodded back at him, showing him he was ready to head out as well before both of them made their way to where Andy and Danny were waiting for them.

"Fellas." Lee greeted them.

Andy looked at him and Jack, "How are ya feelin', you two? I'm really sorry you almost got killed out there. We should have told you how dangerous it was."

Jack glared at him, "No shit."

"You saw what they did to your buddy." Danny said, "Nobody's safe here until we start to fight back."

"How?" Jack looked at the younger sibling with a curious look on his face. Lee seemed curious about it too.

"The three of us are going to go out and do some recon," Danny explained, "Then we'll all mount up for some revenge."

Andy agreed, "Hell, yeah."

"Who the fuck are these people in the woods?" Lee had to ask them this question before heading out with Danny and Jack.

"We don't know." Andy told him, "We think some of 'em used to work at the big box up the way."

"Save-Lots." Danny corrected him.

"Yeah." Andy nodded at the correction, Anyway, they're nutty as all hell. And get mad when they're hungry."

Danny looked at Lee and Jack, "So, are ya two ready to head out there and find their camp?"

Jack nodded at him, more than ready to head out, "Of course we are."

"Remember: we're just doing reconnaissance for now, no point getting ourselves killed." Danny explained as Jack and Lee nodded in understanding.

The younger brother entered the house turned away from them a second later and walked intot he farmhouse as Lee and Jack waited for him to come out into their view. He returned with two rifles a moment later and gave one to Lee. He didn't have to give Jack a weapon because Jack already had his pistol. The three of them walked down the hill and headed towards the gate.

Clementine saw Lee walked over to the gate with Danny and Jack, realizing her caretaker was heading out with them right now. She ran over to him, wanting to say her goodbye, "Are you going now?"

Lee looked down at her and gave her a nod in confirmation, "Yeah we'll be back soon Clementine."

"Please be lucky." Clementine wished him luck.

"We will." Lee reassured her. The group of three left through the gate shortly after, beginning to make their way towards the bandit camp Danny told them about as Clementine watched them walk away before vanishing between the woods.

------

Lee lead the way through the woods. Jack walked next to him and Danny followed close behind them. It had been between about an hour since they had gone out. Danny told Lee the area he believed the camp to be in, they were close now. As they continued on Danny kept glancing to the sides for any small sign which could take them to the camp they were looking for.

"Either of you see anything?" The younger of the St. Johns brothers asked.

Lee shook his head, continuing to look around himself, "Not yet."

"Same here." Jack replied, keeping his eyes open.

Lee stopped and knelt down, nudging an empty can of soup with his rifle as Jack walked past him, taking a few steps forward. He stopped in his tracks when he caught the sight of something. He narrowed his eyes at it and he saw it was a tent and when he got even closer a whole camp came into view,

"Here!" The blonde haired young man shouted as Danny and Lee quickly made their way to him.

Danny got excited at the view of the camp, "Oh, shit! You found it?!"

Lee shushed him and gestured for them to move forward quietly. The group of three sneaked up on the camp and readied their weapons, prepared for a fight, but no one was there. The entire camp was empty. At least for now. They continueed sneaking forward and hid behind the trees to take a better look at the camp and to see if it was really empty.

Danny turned to Lee and Jack, "See anything?"

Lee kept look around the camp which was extremely empty. It only had one tent. Besides it there were some tables with junk on them, a small fireplace with a kettle, and other random garbage lying around, "Looks empty. Stay on your guard, you two. Just in case."

Danny walked into the camp and turned towards the others, "Watch my back, you two. I'm gonna check out the tent."

"Got it." Jack said in understanding as Lee silently nodded at Danny.

Danny slowly approached the tent as Lee and Jack slowly followed him, watching his back. He opened the tent, holding his rifle in ready and took a look inside it. He lowered his weapon after seeing the tent was empty and looked at Lee and Jack, "Clear. This camp's too small. It can't be their main base."

"That's what I was thinking." Lee agreed with him.

Jack nodded in agreement, "Same here."

"Take a look around anyway." Danny told them, "There's probably some shit around here they stole from us."

Jack nodded in understanding and walked over to one table to check out the boxes on it. He shook his head after taking a look inside each box. There wasn't anything worth taking from them. They mostly had items you'd find in a kitchen in them. Lee walked over to the other table which had empty brown boxes laying on it.

Danny shifted his attention from the part of the camp he was checking right now to Lee, "What's in the boxes?"

"They're all from Save-Lots." Lee replied, looking over his shoulder at Danny.

"The first few days. They told folks to gather to the Save-Lots by the interstate." Danny explained, "Anything worth taking?"

"Not unless you need a bunch of empty cans." Lee replied.

"Heh, I'll pass." Danny let out a humorless chuckle as Lee walked over to another table which only had two wooden boxes, along with an odd assortment of useless stuff. As he searched the table, a video camera caught his attention. He picked it up, looking at it with a curious look on his face, "What'd you find?"

"A video camera." Lee answered.

Danny began to move over to him as Lee started pressing the buttons, "Lemme see that."

"Battery's dead, though." Lee told him after pretting the buttons.

"Oh." Danny stopped, "Good." He turned and went towards the table Lee had first searched, "What else they got over here? Let's see if we can find anything useful and then get a move on."

Lee walked towards the tent and knelt down in front of the opening to it. He laid his rifle down on the ground and took a look inside the tent. Inside, he was a picture of a young woman and a little girl. The girl seemed around Clementine's age. He picked it up to examine it with a saddened look on his face, already suspecting what happened to them. The bloodied rabbit plushie in the tent only caused him to become even more sadder. He set the photo down slowly and respectfully.

He noticed a bump underneath one of the blankets and much to his shock picked up what happened to be Clementine's hat? "What the...?"

"Don't either of you fucking move!" A voice from behind ordered him. He turned around and saw a woman, the same woman from the photo, standing not too far from him, Jack and Danny with a crossbow in her hands.

"Shit!" Danny yelled as he aimed his rifle at her.

"We don't want any trouble, Miss!" Jack shouted as he aimed his pistol at her.

"PUT YOUR DAMN GUNS DOWN!" The woman ordered, aiming her weapon at them as she ignored Jack's words. Lee grabbed his gun and aimed it at her as she spoke to them again, "I ain't going back. You tell 'em Jolene ain't goin' back!"

"Hey! We had a deal! No shooting as long as we gave you food!" Danny told her, "What the fuck happened?"

"You had a deal with THEM." She told him, "I ain't THEM." Jolene looked at the Dairy farmer, "Oh..." A small laugh escaped her lips, "I know you. I know what you are," Danny tensed up as she spoke, "And I know what you do."

"You don't know me!" Danny replied.

"Steal my shit!" Jolene continued, "Steal EVERYTHING from me!"

"We had a deal! You people broke it first!" Danny continued.

"Who the fuck are you?" Lee asked as Jolene laughed, "Why are you alone up here? What happened to you?"

"That's a hell of a question, mister." Jolene let out a crazed laugh, a crazed smile forming on her face, "They told me I'd be safe with them... Men who lived here. But it weren't safe. Not for me, and not for my girl. They didn't treat her nice. Not at all. They took her away, into the woods. Wouldn't tell me where. And I begged 'em. Every way I could think. They just laughed... So I killed 'em. And I'm staying here 'til she comes back to me. One way or another... she'll come back."

Her smile faded away from her lips as she let out a growl, "Now, maybe you didn't hear me last time. When I asked you sweet, put your damn guns down! You think I won't kill you? I'm gonna take this here crossbow, and put a nice sharp arrow, right through your eyeball. And into your goddamn brain. You're not men, you're monsters. All men are monsters. Take what they want, and then destroy it all. Take a can of beans, take a little girl... it's all the fucking same to you!"

"Where did you get this hat?" Lee asked, wanting to know how this woman got her hands on Clementine's hat,

"The little girl." Jolene gave him a straightforward answer.

Jack raised his brow, "What hat?"

"I found Clementine's hat inside her tent." Lee explaned.

Jack's eyes widened as he glared at Jolene, "You stole Clem's hat?"

Jolene shrugged, "So what if I did? You two stole her from ME!"

"What the hell are you talking about?" Lee wanted to know.

"You know what?" Jolene asked, "I changed my mind... I'm putting this arrow right through your BALLS. Yeah! Right through. String 'em up on that tree." She motioned to a tree to her left as Lee and Jack exchanged disgusted glances at the threat, "Then I'm a head down to that farm, and shoot every goddamn person I see."

"Just try. You won't make it there." Jack replied to her with a threat of his own.

"You think you could take me down? Like any of you could kill me. They couldn't kill me. They tried. Killin' everywhere. Take all the dead folks you want, we'll make more!" Jolele retorted as she aimed her crossbow at Jack,, not ready to fire it yet. She shifted her attention to Danny a second later, "Go on, tell 'em, boy! Tell them what you got in mind for..."

Jolene never got a chance to finish what she was saying. Just as she was about to go further into her words addressing Danny, a bullet went right through her skull and killed her in an instant. She landed on the ground with her face facing the dirt as Lee and Jack's eyes snapped open in suprise at the sudden death. They shifted their gaze to Danny who was holding his now smoking rifle.

"Goddammit!" Lee cursed as Danny lowered his smoking rifle.

"You killed her!" Jack pointed out, "We could have taken her to the dairy and question her."

"It wasn't worth the risk." Danny pointed out in return, remaining unbothered by what he just did as he eyed the body of Jolene, "It's a clean shot, though. Right through the forehead. That's good shootin' right there. Still, what a waste."

Lee shook his head, "So that's it? We going back?"

"If they ain't here, I don't know where they are. And it ain't a good idea to go tromping through the woods looking for 'em. So, yeah, we head back. Once they see this... they'll get the message." Danny nodded in confirmation as he pushed himself into walk towards Jolene and picked up her crossbow, now carrying his rifle in one hand and Jolene's crossbow in the other. Lee and Jack followed him out of the camp, taking one last look at Jolene's body before heading back to the dairy.