Young and Young at Heart (The Rewrite of The Walking Dead Game: S2) [TWDG/TWD]

49. School of Hard Knocks

Clementine looked over at the four walkers tied to posts, wandering about aimlessly, occasionally reaching the limits of their leashes. It was a cold, cloudy day and being hungry just made Clementine all the more miserable. She and the others had been led outside to an open area where George and Maude were standing in front of this odd sight, an impatient look on both their faces.

"Gene tells me to set all this up, then can't be bothered to show up himself," grumbled an irritated George.

"Can we just start without him?" asked Bridget.

"You're going to learn how to handle lurkers in groups of two," reminded Maude. "You can't do that without a partner."

"My partner is some weird animal child who wouldn't leave the classroom this morning," retorted Bridget. "I don't think he's going to be much help."

"I'll be your partner," offered Matt.

"Like hell," scoffed Bridget.

"Any chance I can trade Matt for Sarah?" asked Mick.

"What? Does bros before hoes mean nothing to you?" asked an offended Matt.

"I want to stay Clementine's partner," said Sarah.

"No one is changing partners." Maude checked her watch and sighed in frustration. "I'll call him." Maude reached for her radio.

"Hold up." George gestured to the gate. Everyone watched as Gene approached with Adam following right beside him.

"Sorry we're late," apologized Gene as Adam moved next to Bridget. "He was... he was a little anxious this morning."

"I don't like having my time wasted Gene," growled George.

"I know, I'm sorry. You've got everyone now so you can get started." Gene started walking back towards the front gate.

"You're not sticking around?" asked George.

"I can't, I need to see Bill about something."

George scowled as he turned back to the class. "Let's get this over with." George grabbed his machete and moved towards one of the walkers. "By now I'm sure y'all know what this is." George gestured to the walker leashed in the distance behind him. "Call 'em whatever you want, they all fall the same, which is my field of expertise."

George started moving towards one of the walkers. "These things mostly go after loud noises. But if you get in close enough, they'll smell you." Clementine watched as George stepped up to the walker. Once he was almost within arm's reach, the walker spun around and hastily stumbled towards George, who casually took a few steps back until the walker's leash stopped it. Clementine watched the corpse futilely snap its teeth at George, desperate to bite him.

"They tend to pick up the pace when they smell something they like. You can use this, fresh blood is like catnip for these damn things. They smell something bleeding nearby, and they'll go for that instead of you." George just stared at the walker for a moment.

"But you won't always have something to feed them, so that's when you need to take care of them. Your first instinct may be to aim for the head, because this..." George plunged his machete through the walker's chest. "Doesn't do a whole lot." The walker kept swinging its arms at George in a pathetic attempt to reach him.

"But skulls tend to be hard to crack, or so I'm told. If you got something sharp, you can go right through the eyes and into the brain." George pulled his machete out of the walker and aimed the blade's tip at the corpse's face.

"But the eyes tend to be a hard target to hit, and you may not have anything sharp on hand." George traced his machete down the walker's body. "However, these things can barely walk as it is, and after a week they're practically rotten to the core, so it doesn't take much to topple them." George stopped the tip of the machete at the walker's ankle. "You break a bone, slice a tendon, or just knock their leg out from under them, and they come down like a ton of bricks." Maude took a garbage picker in hand and approached George.