A new Dawn (Clementine x Louis)

Chapter Three - Reunion and Escape

Louis' eyes widened in terror. These people weren't the enemy, all they needed was protection. The first image he had got from this mew group had been terribly wrong and he had realized it way too late. He had sent AJ on a run to mobilize his friends to kill innocent people, what had he done?!
He ran back into the truck and laid his hand on Adrian's shoulder.
"Quick, when your men "captured" me, the adopted child of my girlfriend was able to hide and run away. Now he has come back with my friends because he thought you were the enemy. Have you got flares, anything clearly visible?"
"Yes, behind you, top left drawer. Do you have a plan to stop your friend from attacking us or do you want to signalize them to concentrate their fire?", he said whilst gripping onto Louis' wrist.
His eyes lay deep, disappointment and mistrust rooted in them. It was like he had aged thirty years in only seconds, the scars on his face looked like he had fought in many wars.
Louis met his gaze and let the man feel how determined he was, a small fire seemed to burn in his eyes as he responded to the accusation.
"I want to stop them, I am NOT your enemy."
The grip loosened after Adrian had seen into his eyes, straight down into his soul to see that he was serious, that he had made a mistake and wanted to prevent anything else from happening.
Louis raced towards the big table, his hands clutched around the wooden grip. The material felt cold, almost like iron and the teenager flinched as his warm palms seemed to get shocked from the cold. With a swift move, he pulled the drawer open, revealing the red and brown packaging of a military signal flare. He ripped it out of its place and ran to the door, almost tripping once again as he opened the metal entry. His feet touched the ground and his palm wrapped around the cap of the tube in his hand. The teen ripped it off and ignored the hot flame next to his hand as he ignited the signal. Louis' arms got thrown around as he climbed on top of a salvaged car and waved towards the woods. He opened his mouth and inhaled deeply, ready to yell as loud as he could.
"GUYS STOP IT, IT'S ME, LOUIS. I'M OK, THESE PEOPLE ARE NOT HOSTILE! STOP SHOOTING FOR FUCKS SAKE!"

The sudden silence after arrows getting shot seemed if all the leaves had fallen of a tree in fall. Slowly but surely, movement got visible in the undergrowth of the forest. His friends slowly approached him, bows drawn, still suspicious at the sudden capitulation. The thing that caught the boy's eyes first was something entirely different though, a limping figure at the front of the column who staggered towards him as fast as it was possible.
"I thought I had lost you!", Clementine shouted across the street, her voice nearly broke as she spoke with tears in the corners of her eyes.
Louis couldn't hold himself back any longer, he ran across the whole street and nearly pushed Clem out of balance as he hugged her. His nose caught the smell of her hair, it was like he had walked into a bees nest, the intense smell of honey filling every inch of his brain and calming him down in an instant.
"Don't you ever scare me like that again, asshole", she told him after first slapping him in the face and then pulling him into a deep passionate kiss.
He grinned and ignored the mild pain on his cheek while giving into the touch of their lips.
"I love you too Clem, I'm so sorry."
They stood  there silently, hugging each other and looking like two intertwined trees in the process, grown to stay like this forever. After loosening their grip on each other, AJ took Clem's place, pride was written all over his face but there was a hint of confusion there as well.
"I brought help, I thought you were in big trouble. That woman put a gun to your head, why do you say they are not bad?"
Louis looked around. Adrian was standing at the entrance to the truck, watching them.
-I won't disappoint him-, he thought, and climbed up on an old car, so everyone could hear him.
"These people are just like us. They are refugees, they seek a save place to stay. They don't want to hurt us. They were just careful when they caught me, they didn't want anyone to destroy what's left of their society. Let's lower all our weapons and take them to the school, let's see if they want to stay there with us."
It was the first time ever that Louis had stepped up and played the leader. He had never thought about being one, never mind doing well whilst doing that. But against all his fears every single kid of the school had listened and all of them trusted Louis. Still, there would be some mistrust left in them.

The significant sounds of walkers got to their ears just as it was too late. The firefight and the explosions had attracted a whole herd of the undead to their location. Hundreds of them crowded both ends of the street, slowly cutting off their escape route. Frank immediately packed the most valuable supplies in his reach into his backpack, while Anne helped Carl, who still had an arrow stuck in his shoulder.
"It's fucking barbed you assholes, why do you make barbed arrows?" Anne cried towards Clementine.
The wound in Carl's shoulder looked gross, strings of muscle clung to the remains of the barbed arrow-tip, crimson red blood was pouring out of the deep wound, making Carl less strong over time.
"We have to get the fuck outta here", Franks yelled, "those undead fuckheads will have us surrounded in no-time! Where's the fucking scientist? Adrian!?"
He looked to the truck, where Adrian was wrestling with a big trunk. His face was covered in sweat as he tried to get it out of its stuck position. Frank ran over trying to yank it out of his hand, but the man just screamed "No, this stuff will come in handy, better go and help me pulling that thing out of the here!"
Frank obeyed, even if he didn't want to. While they got the trunk out of the trucks loading area, the horde of Walkers was getting nearer every second, impending doom on their heels. With a last rip the two man freed the trunk and started running, the kids with Anne and Carl at the front and Clem with Louis and the rest of the newcomers at the back.

The walkers were at the verge of getting the group, when they arrived at the school. Aasim, who was the only one left behind to guard the school, hurried down to open the gates right in time. As the walkers arrived, he, Omar and Ruby got the doors closed, a horde of living dead banging at the doors to get in. But since the raiders attack they had reinforced every wall, put out traps and spikes for the walkers, there was no way they would come in.

Adrian was the first person to say something, the muffled sounds of moaning from outside almost covering the words that left his mouth.
"Well that shit was close!"
Frank started to rise, anger flaring up deep inside his eye sockets, the veins on his throat were pulsating. Rage took control of his body, awaking primal instincts that should remain hidden.
"You fucking morons, you could have gotten us all killed! Couldn't you just come here and try to reason with us, we didn't harm your friend, we even told him we would let him go, but when this stupid fucking boy ran off, we had to keep him as a hostage! Fucking kids!"
Adrian grabbed him by his shoulders, slapped him twice, hard and without hesitation.
"Private Green get your shit together! It's neither their nor our fault. A simple misunderstanding that escalated way too quickly.", he yelled into the mans face, more demanding than angry. It was like he was calling off a dog that tried to attack his neighbors.
The officer started calming down, his anger fizzled out. His breathing started to slow and the veins on his neck became smaller again. He inhaled deeply, finally banishing the rest of fury from his system, becoming docile once again.
"Thanks, I needed that.", he whispered.
After this matter being solved the scientist stepped forward, addressing all the schools kids, especially Clementine, who clearly stood out as their leader.
"Thank you for bringing us here. Like Louis already mentioned",Adrian nodded in his direction thankfully, "a group of rogue soldiers attacked our home and burned it down to the ground. We had to take everything we had and leave, before they could capture and kill us. We took some armored vehicles, strapped some spare cars without batteries on the back and fled with some of the research we provided there. Since then, a whole year passed, and no one heard our cries for help. They all sent us away. You are the first people that trust us to at least come into your base. Thank you for that."
Clementine stepped forward, she did believe what the man had just said, but she still didn't know if she could trust him fully. After all, she was still in the position of leading and protecting her group.
"You seem like honest and good people. You can stay for three days. After that, we will vote, if you can stay or should leave."
The newcomers watched them and nodded silently.
"We accept your terms", Frank said holding out his hand.
Clementine took his hand and looked into his dark eyes.
"Peace?", she asked with a determined tilt of her head.
"Peace."

Well, I wanted to end this chapter with a little bit more of a happy open ending, because, well, at least one shouldn't end with a cliffhanger XD