A new Dawn (Clementine x Louis)

Chapter Twenty-Six - Enemies meet again

It was like a déjà-vu for them, this morning started exactly like the last one had, the same alarm was sounded like the day before. The only clue for them that they weren't stuck in a loop was that they didn't have any clothes on because of what had happened the day before. Clem and Louis looked at each other and grinned, they had good memories from the night.
Clementine slipped out of the bed and grabbed her clothes, putting them on in a hurry while Louis did the same. It hurt her to walk but the pain was not too strong so she strolled over to the door and opened it. When she stepped out of the room, she nearly bumped into Frank who got scared by her sudden appearance.
"Oh good, you're awake, Javi sent me to get you. We are waiting at the gates already."
"What happened?", she was puzzled, the siren was still going in the background.
"Moore is back and he doesn't seem very happy about what happened at your mission."
Her eyes widened, she knew that the leader of the Deltas wouldn't be as nice as he was before, her hurting half of her body was forgotten in seconds.
"We're coming.", she said, Frank nodded and hurried away, the two teens on his heels.
The front gate was crowded by many soldiers, all of them had their guns ready, they wanted to protect their homes, their families. The grim mood affected the air around them, it made it hard to breathe, the atmosphere was tensed to the point of breaking. Clem walked up the stairs to get a better view on the situation, Javier was there already, his face was riddled with concern.
"Good thing you're here. We've got a bit of a situation out here.", he said while pointing to the other side of the street.

She looked at the spot he was pointing at and saw the military vehicles rolling towards them. They stopped in the same manner like they had did the day before, only a couple of meters separated the enemy fractions. Louis walked to Clem's side, put his hand on her shoulder and squeezed it, he was somewhat intimidated by the raw power of the Deltas. The doors opened and the soldiers poured out, their weapons were pointed at the defenders. One of the men opened the door of the UAZ and helped a bandaged figure outside, Moore's wounds hadn't healed yet, the white linen was crimson red from the blood that had poured out of them. The leader flinched as he accidentally touched his left arm or what was left of it. He turned his attention to Javi, Clem and Louis, his face was a twisted mask of hatred and anger.
"We meet again, you probably thought you wouldn't see me again, didn't you? I'll have to disappoint you, I am very much alive and you know what, you really pissed me off now."
Javi responded in an angry tone, he had enough of the ironic and two-face way the man was talking in.
"You got what you deserved you evil fuck! Better get out of here before my men blow off your second hand, I'd like to see that face of yours again, the pain in your eyes, you deserve every ounce of it."
The man on the street started playing with his holster, the revolver was sitting loosely inside of it.
"Fuck you García, we had smaller battles before but you just provoked a war." "You mean the war that is already raging since months?" His eyes got even darker as her hear the response of Javier.
"I'd like to tear down those walls of yours but I think we both know that this wouldn't be very wise. But don't you worry, I'll get my revenge some day else."
A smile started to form on his face, a somewhat triumphant one when he nodded towards one of his soldiers.
"And for the matter of that bitch Lilly I'm going to have it right now."
The soldier pulled the woman out of the UAZ, her hands were tied in front of her body, her feet were bound as well so she didn't have any chance of escape. She was pushed to the ground in front of Moore who grabbed a machete and positioned himself next to her. Clementine gasped as he picked up the metal blade, she knew what he wanted to do.
"Watch and learn, that will happen to all of you if you don't stop resisting!", the man yelled and took a swing.

Time slowed down for Clem, the blade moved down in an arc towards Lilly's neck. The woman had closed her eyes as if she had accepted her fate, she had tried to make things right but failed. Her old nemesis was about to get killed but it didn't feel right, she didn't deserve to die this way.
It was a split second of thinking but it felt like eternity for Clementine, she raised her gun and shot into the direction of the general, she felt the bullet leaving the barrel, the force of the small explosion nearly knocked the weapon out of her hand. She had hoped to hit Moore's face but what happened instead was unbelievable. The projectile hit the blade, a lucky shot that caused the weapon to change its course, instead of chopping into Lilly's throat it hit her shoulder and buried itself deep inside of it. A gush of deep red blood flowed out if the fatal wound, the woman screamed in agony.
The soldiers behind Moore opened fire on the defenders, they had understood this as an aggression. The men of the New frontier fired back, the bullets rained down upon the enemy position whilst Clementine embraced the opportunity and ran down to the gates where she opened a small slit, big enough to let a person through.
"Lilly run!", she screamed and waved at her to get moving.
Lilly started to rise, her knees were weak, they barely supported the weight of her tormented body. She ran to the opening, her eyes were full of the pain she was feeling but the woman knew that this was her last chance. Moore had regained his balance and taken cover behind them, his high caliber revolver in his usable hand. When he saw his prisoner escape he raised it and took aim for her head but before he could fire one of the guards on the wall focused his fire on the enemy general, forcing him to take a hasty shot that didn't hit his target before retreating into cover again.

Clem hit the button that released the gate, it shut with much force, dust was blown into her face. Next to her she could hear a groan, Lilly was lying next to her clutching her injured shoulder. Adrian was the first one to arrive, he had been on the wall suppressing the Delta soldiers before he saw the prisoner running towards the gates. Clem wanted to grab and pull out the machete but the medic stopped her.
"She's going to bleed to death if you do that, the blade is maybe blocking the way out of the artery right now!", he yelled while running towards them.
Instead of ripping out the weapon Clem helped Adrian to carry Lilly to the hospital, they hurried along the street, the gunshots were still audible when they reached their destination. When Eleanore saw them coming up the stairs she cleared the operation room immediately.
"Quick, lay her on this table here, she's loosing too much blood", she said and pointed towards a metal table in the middle of the room.
As they followed her orders the door behind them suddenly opened and revealed a sweaty Louis, he looked like he had done a marathon.
"There you are, I was seeking you everywhere!"
His gaze wandered off to the bleeding woman, sympathy was visible in his eyes as he hurried to Clem's side. Even though he didn't trust Lilly in the first place he helped them to sedate her, she had earned his respect and trust by trying to assassinate Moore. The woman cried out in pain as she was placed on the table and Eleanore connected devices to her body, after that she started to work on her shoulder assisted by Adrian.
"I need you to hold her until the pain killers kick in!", the man in his white is uniform said towards the three bystanders.
They obeyed again, Louis and Javi held her shoulders and arms while Clem held Lilly's legs which were shaking uncontrollably. The man grabbed a device that looked like scissors with padding on the ends and inserted it into the bloody wound, with a gentle motion he spread it and looked closer to the bottom.
"Artery's not cut, I think that no mayor blood vessel got hit, that's a miracle!"
With a last hiss Lilly fell unconscious, the agony was too big for her. The doctor slowly grabbed the grip of the machete and started to pull it out, the blood got faster as it streamed out without much resistance.
"Get the nurses, you can't help us anymore.", Eleanore pleaded them, she was stressed and worried if everything would be fine.

Clementine nodded and left the room after alarming the nurses in front of it who rushed inside without further questions. Louis and Javier followed, both of them were powered out due to the shooting and restraining of Lilly, the day had just started and they already wanted it to end. Javier turned around to face Clem, concern clouded his eyes.
"I'm sorry that I pulled you into this situation, I didn't want you to be stuck in a full fledged war."
She shook her head just like Louis did, they had the same opinion on this topic.
"It's not your fault, we would have gotten a part sooner or later, we still have to rescue our friends.", Louis said and patted the baseball players back.
"I have one question though, I know you guys battled each other before but not in front of your bases that's for sure. Do you have some kind of battlefield or a frontier or something?"
Javi nodded and pulled out a picture that they had seen before, Barnes had given it to him the day they had arrived in Richmond, it was a black and white snapshot. He put it into Clementine's palm and started explaining.
"That's it, this is the front of our lines. It looks like in the first world war, we've built trenches and use everything possible against the Deltas, just like they do with us. They even used tear gas once already but we knew about it and had carried in gas masks, we didn't have enough though, we lost ten men back then. It's brutal out there guys, it's more bad than anything you've seen before."
She knew why he said it that way, he didn't want them in the front lines were the danger was inevitable but it was necessary for them to go there, it was the only place where they could actually do anything to rescue their friends.
"We need to go there.", she said determined to save her family from the claws of the enemy.
Javier looked at both of them and saw that they weren't going to hear him out, their minds were focused on this only thing.
"You know the risks right?", he asked to make them unsure, his plan failed miserably.
"We do and we will take the shot, it's now or never.", Louis answered for his girlfriend.
The man nodded downcast.
"As you wish. I will take some precautions though, we will need more man- and firepower, you should come with me so you can gear up. We leave tomorrow evening, everything should be ready till then." And with this sentence he opened the door that lead outside, Clementine and Louis followed without hesitation.