...

Third Person P.O.V

Lee lands roughly on the other side of the fence, the sounds of the walkers moaning on the other side making him scoot backwards.

They snarled as they banged on the fence, Lee backing into the porch of the house and wincing.

The sound of gunfire in the distance makes the walkers turn, their attention now focused on that as they stagger the direction it came from.

Lee rises, still panting from extortion as he closes his eyes in relief.

He pushes himself off the porch, limping around the yard and looking around. "Hello? Anybody?!"

The yard was family large, a decent sized underground pool off to the side and a shed next to the white house.

He looks next door, a (House Color) house besides it and a wooden fence with a gate adjoining the yards seperating the two.

Lee looks up at a tree house, cupping his mouth. "Anybody up there? Anybody?"

Silence was all he got as a reply, Lee frowning and turning away.

"Thought I saw two little kids in the forest..." he murmurs to himself, shaking his head before calling up. "Are you up there? I'm not one of those things."

No response again.

"Guess it's empty..."

Lee turns away, limping over to the stairs leading to the porch of the house. He notices a tea set for kids at the base of the tree, his gaze lingering on it before he looks back to the house.

"I wonder if anybody's home..." he talks to himself, peeking inside through the glass door.

He pounds his fist on it, "hello? Anybody home? I need a little help. Hello?"

Lee sighs, rubbing his neck. "There's something going on..."

He slowly grabs the sliding door handle, tugging it experimentally before opening the door all the way.

"I'm coming in... Don't shoot, okay?" he calls into the house, looking around unsurely before stepping inside.

Lee lets out a groan of pain as he doubles over, his leg burning. "Shit!"

He hisses, sighing heavily and limping forward. "Hello? I'm not an intruder... Or one of them."

Lee looks around the empty home, furniture thrown around and destroyed.

He frowns deeply in concern, his brow creasing. "These people might need more help than I do..."

Lee's eyes shift from side to side as he walks deeper inside, and he moves around the counter to walk into the kitchen. He slips, landing roughly with a groan of pain as he sits up.

His eyes widen at the sight of crimson on his hand, a pool of blood under him. He quickly rises, shaking the blood off his hand and limping quickly to the sink.

He rinses off his hands and grabs a glass, filling it with sink water and downing it in a few gulps.

"Better," he breathes out, setting the cup back down.

An answering machine beeps loudly, making Lee look back in question as he follows the noise.

He approaches the flashing answering machine, and presses the message button.

"Four new messages."

Lee decides to look around as he lets the messages play, finding two coloring books out and on the floor with crayons tossed around.

"Message one: Left at Ten-Twenty-Six A.M."

"Hey! I hope everything's going good over there. It's (F/N). (M/N) wanted me to thank you again for taking (Y/N) over to Diane's house and watching both of our kids. I know they can be a bit rowdy together, so I hope they don't cause too much trouble for you. Tell my little girl we miss her, if you don't mind. Thank you again!"

"Message two: Left at Five-Forty-Three P.M."

"Hey, Sandra! This is Diane. We're all still in Savannah. Ed and (F/N) had a little... Incident with some crazy guy near the hotel, so we had to get him back to the ER and have it checked out. (M/N) is worried since both of them aren't feeling well enough to be able to drive back tonight, so we're staying an extra day."

Lee walks over to the glass door, looking outside for a moment as it continues.

"Thanks so much for looking after Clement and (Y/N). I promise we'll be back in time before your spring break!"

That was the end of the message, Lee backing back into the house and continuing to look around.

"Message three: Left at Eleven-Nineteen P.M."

"Oh, my god! Finally! I don't know if you've tried reaching us, but all the calls are getting dropped. Ah, this is (M/N) by the way."

Lee looks over at the machine, a different woman speaking this time in relief.

"They won't let us leave, and aren't saying anything about Atlanta. Please, please leave the city and take my baby and Clement with you back to Marietta. I've got to get back to Diane in the hospital. Just please, call us back and let us know you're all safe!"

Lee's brows furrow in sadness and confusion, the final message playing.

"Message four: Left at Six-Fifty-One A.M."

The sound of muffled snarling was in the background, (M/N) shouting and the sound of metal hitting things being heard. There was also the sound of snarling, as well as screaming and clattering.

"Clement? (Y/N)-- sweethearts..." Diane sobs, her voice trembling. "If either of you can hear this, call the police. That's 9-1-1. We love you... We love you... We love--"

The answering machine beeps, the message ended.

Lee notices a few pictures on the desk, one of two women with their arms around each other making silly faces. Another had two families, and two kids standing side by side. And the last one had two kids in the backyard he recognized, a boy placing a small flower behind a girl's ear as she smiled.

He frowns sadly, shaking his head and setting the photo of the kids down.

"Dad?" a little boy's voice questions.

Lee jumps at the sound, his brows furrowing as he quickly walks towards the direction of the noise. "Huh?"

He looks around in confusion before he walks to a drawer, opening it and discovering a walkie-talkie.

Lee moves back to the glass door, pressing the button to speak into the walkie-talkie. "Hello?"

"You need to be quiet," the same voice whispers quickly, Lee frowning.

Lee glances side-to-side before moving back into the house, "who is this?"

"I'm Clement. My friend (Y/N) is here, too. This is my house."

He looks around for the voice, ducking to peek under a table. "Hi, Clement and (Y/N)."

"... Hello," a little girl greets sheepishly, making Lee visibly relax with a quiet chuckle.

"Nice to meet you both. I'm Lee."

"You're not either of our dads," Clement responds, disappointment in his voice.

Lee frowns sadly, shaking his head even though he wasn't sure if they could see. "No... I'm not. How old are you two?"

"We're both eight right now. Clement's a few months older, though," (Y/N) replies quietly, giggling a moment later. "But I'm taller."

"Hey!" Clement protests with a huff.

Lee can't help a small chuckle at the two, his brow creasing with concern a moment after. "You're both alone?"

"Well... We have each other," Clement slowly answers, voice holding sadness and a bit of fear. "We're not sure where anyone is. How old are you?"

Lee blinks slowly at the question fired back. "I'm, uh... 37."

"... Cool."

He looks around a bit more, "where are your parents?"

"Our parents all took a trip together, and left me with Clement and Sandra," (Y/N) answers, the sound of movement in the background.

"They're in Savannah, I think. Where the boats are," Clement chimes in, Lee continuing to search around.

He notices a few baby pictures on the wall, handprints on a paper with Clement written under.

"Are you two safe?" Lee questions as he enters the kitchen, walking over to the sink and looking out the window above.

"We're outside in our tree house. They can't get in." Clement responds, Lee looking up to the treehouse.

"That's smart," Lee praises softly, nodding.

(Y/N) slowly looks through the treehouse door, clutching a small stuffed (Favorite Animal) doll to her chest. Clement peeks over her, holding the walkie-talkie up.

"See? Can you see us? We can see you through the window."

(Y/N) waves unsurely with a small smile, Lee chuckling and waving back with a grin.

Her eyes widen in fear as she lets out a scream, her scream echoing through the walkie-talkie.

"Look out!" Clement yells.

Lee turns swiftly just as a walker rises with a snarl, a gasp escaping him. He grabs her wrist in one arm, keeping her away by placing a hand on her collarbone. He moves his hands to her shoulders, shoving her back as she fights against him while snarling, her face bloody and torn and her eyes pale.

He throws her back against the stove before turning to run, and with his bad luck, he slipped once again on the blood pool.

His head slams against the counter, making his ear ring and his vision blurry.

The walker crawls closer, making him shake his head to regain focus as he kicks her in the face roughly with a yell.

Lee rises, turning to run once more before the walker grabs his leg and trips him.

He quickly turns, scooting away and punching the walker in the face as he does so.

He continues crawling backwards, (Y/N) rushing over and opening the glass door with some effort as Clement runs over with a hammer.

The walker grabs Lee's foot, climbing over him as he holds her back with straining grunts.

A shoe was thrown roughly, it colliding with the walker's face and giving Lee enough time to shove her off of him.

"H-- Here!" Clement urges as he holds the hammer in trembling hands, Lee swiftly moving backwards and taking the hammer from him.

Clement moves back to (Y/N), both cowering and holding one another as Lee smashes the hammer against the walker's face with a yell.

He quickly rises and steps on her stomach to keep her in place, and swings the hammer down on her face.

Once, twice, three times it took to put her down.

Her pale eyes were popped out of her skull, her jaw unhinged and her nose torn off completely as blood pools around her head.

"Man..." Lee pants lightly, bending over and grabbing (Y/N)'s thrown shoe before cleaning it off with his shirt. "Hi there."

Clement backs (Y/N) away as the blood spills near her bare foot, her keeping her leg raised as she looked down at what used to be Sandra sadly.

"Did... Did you kill it?" she questions quietly, Lee handing her shoe over to her.

"I... Don't know," Lee responds honestly, staring down at the corpse. "I think so."

(?) They will remember that

(Y/N) struggles to put her shoe on, bouncing a little as Clement gulps.

"Sometimes they come back," he quietly says, eyeing Sandra's corpse with a deep frown.

Lee frowns, "have... Either of you killed one?"

"We haven't," (Y/N) shakes her head, fixing her shoe before standing up. "But we've seen them get shot a lot."

Lee kneels down to their heights as they stand next to one another. "You two've been all by yourselves through this?"

"Yeah," (Y/N) hugs her stuffed animal tightly, fear evident on her face and in her trembling voice. "I wish our parents would come home now."

"Me, too," Clement agrees, grabbing her hand at her side.

Lee recalls the answering machine, his face falling as he looks away. "I think that might be a little while... You know?"

"Oh."

Clement adjusts his hat, looking down sadly while (Y/N) continues hugging her doll.

Lee looks between the two, his heart aching for them as he scoots closer. "Look, I don't know what happened. But I'll look after you both until then."

(Y/N) looks up at Lee for a moment before looking to Clement, who reassuringly nods with a small smile.

"What should we do now?" he questions, Lee weighing his options for a moment as he looks outside.

"We need to find help before it gets dark."

Clement nods slowly, looking to (Y/N) in concern. "Yeah... It's not safe at night."

"I don't like the dark," she agrees, Lee rising and limping towards the door.

(Y/N) takes his left hand, still clutching her stuffed (Favorite Animal) doll to her with her other hand as Clement holds Lee's other hand.

"Let's go," Lee smiles reassuringly, though even he was anxious. "Stay close to me."

(Y/N) continues holding his hand as they walk outside, Clement taking the lead and looking around. He looks back inside his home, (Y/N) sadly frowning as he closes the door.

She follows after Clement as he runs ahead, the two waiting for Lee to catch up near the front gate.

Lee limps over, noticing two men trying to push a car and failing.

"Man! I ain't never gettin' home to mama at this rate."

"This sucks."

"And it's hot dish night..."

They continue trying to push the car as Lee walks over, setting his hand on the gate and stopping as someone tugs on his shirt.

Lee looks back at the two, kneeling to their heights. "What's the matter?"

"Clement and I were talking, and..." (Y/N) trails off, looking down with teary eyes. "Shouldn't we stay?"

"What?"

Clement's mouth curves in a hesitant and conflicting manner, "I don't want us to sleep in the treehouse tonight, I don't know if we should leave. What if our parents come home?"

Lee restrains from flinching as he recalls the answering machine, (Y/N) looking up at him with big eyes and Clement still frowning.

"I won't leave either of you alone," he replies after a moment.

Clement's frown curves up into a small smile, (Y/N) nodding as relief comes to her face.

She grabs Clement's hand, making him look back to her. "What if we went somewhere safe that's close?"

Clement mentally debates, his eyes shifting around before looking to the treehouse, then to (Y/N). He slowly nods in agreement, Lee smiling as he rises.

"That's a good idea, (Y/N)."

She grins to herself happily and walks ahead, Clement quickly following as she opens the gate and the three move through it.

"Hey there!" Lee calls, startling the two men.

"Holy shit! Don't eat us!"

"We're not gonna hurt you," Lee calmly replies, limping over to them.

Shawn sighs in relief, "thought for a second, you and the kids were all going to give us the chomp."

"Do you know what the hell this is?" Lee questions, looking around the deserted neighborhood littered with crashed cars.

"No idea," Shawn shakes his head, shrugging. "So you've seen them too, then?"

He looks over to where one of the undead corpses was laying down, already taken care of.

Lee grimaces at the man's torn jaw and opened gut, "you could say that."

"I'm Shawn. Shawn Greene," Shawn introduces himself, smiling.

"Lee. This is Clement, and (Y/N)."

(Y/N) shifts behind Lee, peeking out while Clement slowly waves his hand.

Chet kneels down, waving back and smiling kindly. "I'm Chet."

(Y/N) smiles, her and Clement sharing the same relieved look that they weren't mean or hostile.

"We shouldn't be out in the open like this." Shawn looks around in concern, sighing as he looks back to the car blocking their truck. "How about you help us clear the way, and we'll take you and your kids out of here and down to my family's farm? It should be safer there."

Lee shakes his head, "I'm not their dad, I'm... Just some guy."

"Some... Guy?" Shawn repeats, his brows furrowed as he frowns.

"Yeah."

He looks down to the two kids, his eyes widening. "They're alone?" Shawn shakes his head quickly, knowing now wasn't the time for this. "Let's get going. Staying put for too long is a mistake."

Lee goes to nod before stopping himself, looking back to the kids. "What do you want to do?"

"I..."

Clement trails off, looking to his house plate as (Y/N) does the same to her mailbox next door.

A gurgled snarl makes Lee's gaze move from them to down the street, decaying walkers coming towards them.

"Them monsters comin'! We gotta go!" Chet urges, keeping an eye on them as Shawn starts trying to push the car.

"Lee, quick! Let's go!"

Lee's eyes were wide with fear as he limps over, the two men grunting as they start using their weight to push the car. Clement and (Y/N) rush over, both pushing on it too as the car moves fully out of the way.

"Get in!"

Chet throws himself in the bed of the truck, Shawn getting in the driver's seat and Lee helping Clement up into the truck before climbing in with (Y/N) sitting on his lap.

They speed off just as the walkers near the truck, leaving them in the dust.

Clement looks back at the walkers, (Y/N) tightly hugging her doll to her body as Lee cradles her on him.

"For just some guy, it seems you saved a bunch of lives today," Shawn speaks with a smile, nodding gratefully.

Clement's eyes linger on his house before shifting to (Y/N)'s house, a frown on his face as he sits back forward.

...

..

.