This is Chapter Three in the first episode of my fan-made Season Two of The Walking Dead (Video Game). Thanks to anyone who has been reading and big thanks to superherofan21 for his comments on my work so far. If you haven't read the first two chapters, you can find links to them below. If you experience any problems, let me know in the comments section. This chapter introduces a bunch of new characters at a new location. If you enjoy it, please give the page a like and share your thoughts in the comments section.
Thank You!
-George
Read Chapter One: http://www.comicbookmovie.com/fansites/comicsreel/news/?a=78450
Read Chapter Two: http://www.comicbookmovie.com/fansites/comicsreel/news/?a=79627
The Walking Dead: Season Two
Episode One: Choices We Make
Chapter Three: Hunting Party
Coach has already spotted Alex and Johnny before the latter gives him the signal. He is relieved to see the two, even though he can already see they have returned empty-handed again. Coach wants to break the news to Tom, who is now chopping wood to keep himself from thinking about how hungry he is, despite his stomach’s tendency to remind him through repeated sequences of grumbling and moaning that Coach has mistaken for the moans of one of the undead twice already.
Tom was in his late forties, and a number of grey hairs invading his otherwise dark hair were starting to show it. He was a stocky guy with a long face that often struggled to make a smile. He dressed like he was older than he was usually wearing dungarees and a baseball cap to hide his greys. He and his family were the first to find the hilltop and turn it into a fortified safe haven. With his experience in renovation, Tom was able to setup the camp in no time.
Tom’s belly cries for something other than tinned fruits, and he is reminded of the number of things he would be willing to do for a succulent piece of meat, dipped in gravy, with a side of golden roast fluffy potatoes, and maybe a strong glass of wine to wash it down. Tom realises he is starting to drool, and wipes his mouth before Coach mistakes him for a walker, and drives an axe through his skull.
Luke was a big guy and a hell of a fighter, earning him the nickname “Coach” in this little community. He was black with a buzz cut that made his head look as round as his gut. He wore a tracksuit that Tom couldn’t believe people actually made in his size.
Coach could be simple-minded at times, but he wasn’t unintelligent by any means, he just forgot things. Important things. Twice, he had fallen asleep on watch, and one of the times he let in a walker. No one was hurt, thankfully. But Tom wasn’t happy. He often gave Coach a hard time, but it was only ever because he knew Coach was brighter than most people thought. Tom was still staring into space, thinking about the ever-so satisfying sound beef made when it was flipped on a piping hot grill, when Coach called his name for the third time, this time a little louder. Tom snapped out of it, and then he saw them.
Johnny and Alex went to school together, and graduated together. Before corpses started walking around, they worked together. And now, they were fighting for their lives together. Their birthdays were only a couple of days apart, and people often described them as being like brothers. If it hadn’t have been for their differences in looks, they could have passed for siblings. Alex was a skinny boy with blonde shoulder-length hair. He always wore sports clothing, baseball jackets and such, but never played any sports of any kind. Johnny was a short lad with black hair combed upwards. His skin was soft, and he was never seen wearing anything other than his black leather jacket (even in this warm weather) over a plain white shirt. He reminded Alex of a cartoon character who always looked the same.
Alex had been dreading what Tom would make of the fact they hadn’t brought anything back with them, so it was no surprise to Johnny that he let out an audible sigh when he saw Tom approach them. “Here we go,” he muttered under his breath.
“What the hell do you call this?” Tom demanded of the two, not in the least satisfied with the two’s results after their two hours out in the woods.
“There’s nothing out there,” Johnny quickly stepped in to defend Alex. “The walkers must be scaring them off. There are a lot of those things out there.”
“And there are a lot of us here – and we’re starving!” Tom had already begun to raise his voice. Alex and Johnny constantly disappointing him often did a number on Tom. The shouting that followed usually landed him with a sore throat, a throbbing headache, and sometimes even breathlessness. Alex wondered how soon it would be before he suffered another heart attack. He could see Johnny was thinking the same thing, as he began to test Tom’s temper some more.
“We’re not risking our lives just because you refuse to eat tinned fruits and vegetables!”
“Tinned fruits, son. Fruits. We ran out of vegetables last night. We need meat! We’re carnivores, just like those things out there!” Tom pointed, although he wasn’t sure what at. He certainly hoped there wasn’t one of “those things” approaching the camp.
Johnny got some joy out of the fact that Tom just compared himself to one of the walkers. A walker would be easier to get along with, he thought to himself.
“You’re not coming back in until you have something for us,” Tom went on, tightening his grip on the axe. He had no intention of using it, but as Johnny continued to test him, Tom feared he might break it in half.
Johnny could see that Coach wanted to step in, but he was just as scared of Tom as he and Alex were in times like these. His bottom lip was trembling, and he was trying not to look any of them in the eye.
Johnny realised Alex was about to jump in, and stopped him from making anything worse when he said “Fine, we’ll be back.” At this point, he had lost all interest he had in rejoining the rest of the camp. He knew the best thing that could possibly come out antagonising Tom even further would be to give him the inevitable heart-attack that was already long overdue for him. Now that he thought about it, Johnny wished he had stayed.
Coach watched Alex and Johnny leave together and return to the woods to waste another hopeless couple of hours searching for food. He was already regretting not stepping in when Tom refused to let the two back onto the camp, he knew he would have to make amends for that soon. But for now, he was focusing on Tom, who was shaking from raising his voice so high. People often misunderstood, Tom never enjoys shouting at anyone. The camp seem to think that he gets a kick out of people being cared of him, but if anything it’s dangerous for someone with his condition to be so pent up all the time.
Coach approached Tom, who is still breathing heavily after his outburst. He continues to watch Alex and Johnny walk in the other direction, and almost jumps out of his skin when Coach pats his shoulder. “You need to be careful, man,” he warns Tom. “There’s gonna come a time when they stop being scared of you, and they gonna do somethin’ stupid.”
“Let ‘em try,” Tom replies. “They’ll only get themselves killed.” Tom is now looking straight at him, as though he’s staring into his soul. “I’ll do anything to protect my family, Coach. Anything.” Coach had never considered himself afraid of Tom, but when he stared into those cold grey eyes, he understood what Tom’s words truly meant, and felt fear for the first time.
“Maybe we should try talking to his wife?”
“That would never do anything for us. What else is she gonna do other than support her husband. You thinks she’d dare do anything else? He probably beats her, the cold bastard.” Johnny had put down every idea Alex had to deal with Tom that hadn’t ended with a fight that made Johnny look like the alpha-male of the group. From the beginning, Alex had tried to avoid violence, but it was starting to look inevitable.
“I don’t want to get kicked out of the camp, Johnny. Apart from Tom, those people are real friendly. And that new couple too, that showed up yesterday! Maybe they could help us?”
“If they come back, you mean?” Alex nodded. Johnny hated to act so cold, but they were living in a world where if someone hasn’t been seen for over 24 hours, it was considered optimistic to think they were still alive.
“I’m just saying, we have it a lot better than some people. We’re alive for starters. And don’t forget we have-“
“Shhh…” Johnny signalled Alex to be quite, pressing his finger against his lip as he slowly approached something in the distance. The two cut through tall grass, brushing away the low-hanging branches as they moved silently through the woods that were becoming more and more unpredictable by the minute.
The walker was feasting upon a not so long dead stag. Its entrails had been yanked from its belly, spilling blood and organs across the grass. The animal had been torn to shreds by its unnatural predator, its organs cast aside by the beast with its jaws in its belly. The walker licked its lips as it dived in for another feast of flesh and blood. Alex almost felt wrong not hurling just at the mere sight of it, but he almost couldn’t believe what he was seeing. It wouldn’t have been like retching over a gore-infested horror movie - what he was seeing in front of him was very real.
“Shame…” Johnny had already raised his hunting rifle before Alex could bear to look at the blood-fest in front of him. He fired a single shot that brought down the walker. The bullet fired out the opposite end of the creature’s skull, and for a moment, Alex thought the walker had survived the shot. But sure enough, the zombie fell limply to the ground. “That could’ve lasted us for a week,” Johnny finished. Alex barely heard him, his ears were still ringing from the shot.
When Johnny approached the walker and the stag’s remains, the amount of meat left on the poor animal was the first thing he noticed. The thing could have lasted the group maybe even as long as two full weeks if they’d have taken enough care. Johnny had never eaten stag, but he imagined it couldn’t taste too different to beef or horse. Johnny had been deprived of meat for far too long. He never thought of himself as someone who would resort to cannibalism, but he decided in that moment that, give him some fries and some sauce to go with it, he would happily eat human meat. It would at least make a difference from the tinned beans he had been forced to dine on every night, which were starting to give him gas.
“You know we can’t eat that, right?” Alex tells Johnny, who is still miles away thinking about how human meat tastes, and if it would go with ketchup.
Now Johnny is thinking about something else entirely. He knows, as Alex just reminded him, that the meat in front of him is likely poisonous now, with the walker having set its rotted venomous teeth deep into it. But now he has an idea. It’s an idea that could save both of them, and perhaps even the group. But it’s one so disgusting, so evil and so atrocious, that he can’t say it aloud. “You remember how I told you that Tom put me in charge of serving the food tonight?” is all Johnny says to Alex. It’s all he needs to say, as he can tell by the change in Alex’s face that he knows exactly what he means. Now, Alex is looking at Johnny as though he doesn’t recognise him anymore. Johnny realises he needs to explain himself, but before he gets a chance, he notices another walker, obviously drawn to them by the sound of the gunshot, approaching from behind Alex.
“DOWN!” He screams at Alex, who is still oblivious to the walker approaching from behind. Instead he turns around, facing the walker. When he sees it, he covers his eyes, as if the zombie is something straight out of a nightmare that can’t really hurt him. But it can, and it’s getting closer to Alex now. Johnny realises his fingers have turned to butter as he struggles to get a decent grip on his rifle whilst the chaos continues.
Johnny jumps at the sound of a gunshot from not too far away. For a moment, he fears he might have shot himself in the foot. But he sees the walker tumble and eventually drop, and realises that someone just saved their asses. This someone then appears out of the treeline facing them both. The woman is accompanied by an elderly couple. Johnny has never seen her before, but even he is already starting to fall in love.
Continues in Chapter Four: The Camp
Coming Soon...