Tales of The Wallking Dead

Chapter 13

"Okay then. This wasn't our best move getting trapped in here." Sophie says looking out the window at the herd of walkers. "Well look on the bright side. There's a good few dead out there and the people that killed them are probably here to save us!" Clementine says trying her best to be supportive. "Well not to alarm anyone but those guys who are here to save us are the damn military." Connor hisses as he backs away from the door. "What's the plan then? Sit here and wait for them to capture us?" Connor targets this question specifically at Jacob. "Well I mean like w-we could just." Jacob pauses to collect himself and try and figure out what he wants to say next. "We'll escape!" He says suddenly. "That way we can get out unscathed on both sides! Nobody needs to die." Jacob explains rather proud of himself. "M'kay there's something I wanna point out." Connor says not really getting the answer he wanted from Jacob. "You say don't kill the living yeah? I think you forget a living tried to kill you. When Payton ran at you and bit you on the hand I'm fairly certain her and Blaze has every intention of killing you in a conflict you started and it felt like a very very forced one at that. Like you were just itching for the thrill of the fight." After hearing Connor say this Jacob walks over to him and give him a glare. "You stuck up for me during that remember? Or has the bloodshed you've caused gotten to your head?" Jacob says coldly not taking his glare from Connor. "I'm telling you. If I hadn't done what I did to Blaze then you'd almost certainly not be with us right now." Connor hoped that this would shut Jacob up but he went back to his point. "We still don't kill the living."

As Jacob said that a soldier burst through the door and held his gun up at everyone. "On your knees! Hands on your head!" He commands and in a panic everyone complies. "Now. Which of you is the one who killed 6 of our men?" He asked surveying the group. "None of you look capable enough to even hurt us let alone kill us." He says in a part mocking tone as Jacob smirks. "That'd be Connor the one with the scruffy Nike baseball cap on." Jacob points to Connor and the soldier walks over to him. "So you're the little prick who did it then. Y'know I have every right to kill you right now. I have orders to kill you and you broke the laws the quarantine zone was out under. You aren't aloud to leave the QZ unless you're on patrol and last I checked you weren't on patrol." The soldier presses his gun to Connor's head. "They want you to join them because they think you're 'battle ready' but I'm going to kill you and pretend it was a walker who got you. I'll kil you, throw your body out of the window and make it look like a walker did it." The soldier says a sadistic smile spreading across his face. "They'll never even know and no one's gonna mourn you." He adds which gets Connor's blood boiling as he clenches his hands into fists. "This is the end of your road." The soldier says as he holds the gun to Connor's head and itches his finger on the trigger but before he does Connor punches him in the leg and he shoots the floor missing his shot as Connor stands up and kicks him over.

Connor looks down at his leg and realises he never took the knife Blaze jabbed into his thigh out because he was hiding it for and emergency like this one. It takes him a second but he gets the knife out and just as the soldier stands up Connor jumps on his jabbing the knife into his neck repeatedly over and over again until he suddenly gets knocked out cold by the butt of a gun.

Connor wakes up strapped to a chair in a rather official looking tent where a guy smoking in a chair looks up from a book of crossword puzzles. "Good evening there." He says in a tone only a leader could have. Like the tone Jacob used when he was serious only deeper. "So. You're the little pocket rocket that slaughtered 7 of my men huh?" He asks as he takes a puff of his cigar. "Wow. Cigars. You're a fancy bunch you lot." Connor comments coughing for dramatic effect. "I suppose you could say that but might I say. You have a serious spirit. Nobody I know could take down 7 trained military personnel with a knife, their foot and a proper assault weapon that they never used before. That's commendable." He takes another puff of his cigar and kicks his feet up on the table. "The names Rhodes. Steven Rhodes." The man introduces himself and stands up from his big fancy chair. "I run things around here. I'm the leader of the Edinburgh QZ and I came up with the idea to make you one of us." Steven says. "Me and the other soldiers were discussing what to do with you and my idea one because well. I run the place." He said proudly as Connor laughed. "Me? Join you?" Connor kept giggling as Steven's expression darkened. "Go to hell mate. I'd never join your little attempt to rebuild society. Your men took out an infected elderly couple before they could say goodbye to their family." Connor said glaring at Steven. "I don't think you understand." Steven replied motioning to the tent flap. "You don't have a choice."

On cue a soldier comes through with a gun to Lily's head as he escorts her inside the tent. "This here is my good man Martinez." Steven said putting his hand on Martinez's shoulder. "He's a good man but he has his orders." Steven explained as Lily was kicked to her knees. "So. As previously mentioned. Will you join us?" Steven asked as Martinez put his rifle to Lily's head and Lily had a look of pure terror on her face. "Oh that's clever you sick fucks." Connor said grimly but he then sighed. "Fine, yes. I'll join you but just please let her go." He said his tone only partly begging. "I knew we'd convince you! We've been told we're quite the persuasive bunch." Steven said as he untied Connor and shoved both him and Lily out of the tent.

After the two had ran a safe distance away from the tent they sat down by a tree unsure of where they were. "Oh god." Connor exclaims breathing heavily. "They nearly killed you!" He says his hands only trembling slightly. After hearing this Lily quickly hugged him and just broke down in his arms as Connor didn't quite know what to say as he was never the best at comforting people he just sort of hugged her back  and didn't let go. Once Lily had calmed down and Connor had reassured her that they'd be fine he gave her hand a squeeze and stood up moving over to a conveniently placed map on a wall about 10 meters away. "We are here on the east side of the QZ. Goddamn they really expanded the place, it covers the entire meadows now not just part of it." Connor says shaking his head trying to think of where the rest of The Wall could be. While he was thinking a soldier came up and grabbed him by the collar and dragged him away as Lily looked fearful again but Connor pointed north and mouthed 'they should be there' and Lily ran off to explain what happened. 

Connor got thrown into a newly built room where guns and uniforms of all description lay about just waiting to be picked up. Steven gave Connor a friendly smile as he walked into the room. "Ah there he is. The new recruit! Welcome to the force. We're here to reinstate hope and life back into this chaotic world." Steven said proudly as he lay out a uniform on the table along with a helmet and bulletproof vest. "It only took you eight and a bit days. Well done." Connor said rolling his eyes and giving Steven a slow clap. "We're fast aren't we? Anyway put these things in and then we'll arm you as you seem to be proficient in melee combat as you showed poor Tom back in the school building." Steven said as Connor grimaced. "Yeah yeah. Well in fairness he had a gun to my head and was itching that trigger." Connor retorted which actually seems to shut Steven up. "Doesn't matter now. Put your uniform on." Once Steven said this Connor knew he had to comply or Lily and subsequently the rest of the group would be killed as well. 

After putting all the equipment on and becoming about 10 pounds heavier Steven walked over to him and placed a couple weapons on the table. A 16mm pistol, an M-16 assault rifle, a stainless steel desert eagle, a pump action shotgun, some grenades and finally an axe. Connor had the pistol placed into a holster on his left hip, the M-16 AR placed on a sling around his shoulder, the Deagle was placed into a holster in his right hip, the shotgun was holstered to a slot on his belt where his hand gun holsters were. The grenades go placed in their own pouches on the belt and the axe was also attached to the belt along with the shotgun. "Is this standard issue weaponry for all soldiers." Connor asked as he could barely walk he was so loaded down with weapons. "Yes it is. Some just choose to hand certain guns back and keep others but this is your starting set." Steven explained as Connor adjusted his belt. "Here, take back your shotgun, Deagle and grenades. I'll be keeping the pistol, axe and AR though." Connor said as he lighted his load a little making him a bit more nimble. "Oh yeah. Here's your bag back." Steven said as he threw Connor his empty rucksack. "We took all the supplies of you don't mind." Steven said as Connor sighed but took the bag and walked back outside but before he did Steven said one last thing. "You'll have your first assignment soon." He said in an almost warning tone.

As soon as Connor left the room he ran back to the north side where a soldier came up to him and told him his friends had been moved to the west side because they were causing bother with another group of people. Connor didn't think anything of it and just headed over to the west side and looked on at the 10 or 20 large tents they had set up all around the place. Some of the tents could hold up to 15 people with part of the tent being sectioned off for tables and supply usage. As soon as Connor tracked down the group he was surprised to see that Freyja had rejoined them. To Connor's knowledge she'd effectively left The Wall after saying she didn't want to escape with us. Once Connor entered the tent Jacob glared at him but other than that most seemed to be relieved he wasn't dead. Once Lily saw him she ran up and hugged him but pulled back when she saw all the weapons he had strapped to him. Connor had to explain that it was for the safety of the group he joined the NHS D.R.U's forces which people seemed to understand.