System Of The Undead

Chapter 99: The Conclusion PT.4 [SEASON 1 END]

Sam and Clementine returned to the car and they were soon on their way, it didn’t take long for them to reach the motel.

Clementine was focused on the road but she couldn’t help but feel that she had missed something due to the weird atmosphere that she was perceiving.

However, Sam had his eyes on Allison and Jason as the car soon came to a stop.

Sam got out of the car first and the moment he stepped foot on the ground, he gestured for them to stay in place,

"What is wrong, Sam?" Clementine asked.

"Someone has been here," Sam said, he could easily tell because of the faint footprints on the ground that others would otherwise have missed.

"Lillian!" Rachel exclaimed as she got out of the car but Sam grabbed her by the shoulder despite the gut-wrenching pain in his torso.

"Let go of me!" Rachel exclaimed.

"What if leaving you to your devices is what gets her killed? How will you deal with the guilt then? I know that little brain of yours hasn’t thought that far ahead but if you disobey my orders, I will not take it lightly..." Sam’s threat was vague but Rachel knew that getting on his bad side was the worst thing to do in this situation.

Sam was a leader and he needed compliance or they risked losing their discipline.

Clementine remained silent, she didn’t know how Sam saw her but she knew that she had lost his respect.

Sam was a man who gave people one chance and once it was lost, that was it.

The bullet he wanted to put in her head was an example of that.

She knew that Sam needed to reestablish control and she had no plans of getting in his way.

"Let go of her, Sam," Jason said as he got out of the car.

"Huh?" Sam blurted out, Jason still had the hero complex.

"I said let her go," Jason reiterated.

"Jason, I don’t think now is the time," Clementine whispered to him, trying to make him reconsider because Sam right now shouldn’t be agitated.

Sam chuckled because he wanted to see what Jason planned to do.

"And if I don’t?" Sam asked, tightening his hand on Rachel’s shoulder.

The pain she felt was visibly through her face, she bit her lower lips with her knees almost buckling in the process.

"Y-You’re hurting me..." Rachel whimpered but Sam didn’t give a shit.

"You hear that Jason, I’m hurting her," Sam mocked him.

Jason wasn’t a fool and knew he would get his ass handed to him if he attacked Sam but he couldn’t stand by and do nothing while Rachel was quite literally being manhandled.

He had to do something about it and he momentarily thought about using his Berserker skill but he knew the aftermath of that wouldn’t be desirable if he won seeing as he had no control over what went on.

Jason charged at Sam and he tried to punch him but Sam did something that Jason couldn’t have predicted, he yanked Rachel to his front to use as a human shield.

Jason’s eyes widened in shock the moment he saw this but he couldn’t retract his punch in time due to the momentum.

Jason’s fist landed right into Rachel’s jaw and that was when Sam let go of her.

"Now we have something in common, we have both hurt her," Sam said with a grin.

Jason caught her from falling to the ground, gritting his teeth at Sam but Sam’s attention had already shifted from them and back to his objectives.

Jason wanted to speak but Sam had already taken out his pistol, he briefly remembered his encounter with Sam and how he had no hesitation in pulling the trigger.

Clementine remained quiet as she watched on, things would have ended a lot more peacefully if Jason didn’t butt in.

"Clementine, make sure none of them move," Sam said, advancing carefully.

Rachel knew she had to know if Lillian was safe but upon rethinking it, she realized her rushing ahead without any plan would most likely have put Lillian in more danger if there was any.

"Understood," This was all Clementine said.

Bella’s eyes finally opened but she caught Allison staring right at her.

"I hoped it was a dream..." Bella muttered.

"I don’t like you either but it looks like we are a team now," Allison blurted out.

"I bet you would have loved it if I died," Bella muttered weakly.

"The day is still early," Allison responded.

Clementine listened to their conversation without giving a reaction pretending to be too focused on what was going on outside and their hushed whispers told her that these people didn’t want to be heard either.

It might be banter between frenemies or these might be words that would prove invaluable down the line but Clementine knew she had to keep an eye on them.

She didn’t know why Allison was there and despite her size, something told her that Allison was more of a threat than Bella.

She was right, she understood the basics of the Specter and how they were ranked so this meant that this lady was one of them.

It also meant she was a criminal in the world before and even in this new one.

But the line that defined good or bad had long been blurred.

-

Sam went on ahead alone despite his wounds; this surprised everyone because if there were dangerous people there then he would be all alone.

They might not like Sam but he did show traits of a leader and he deserved to be treated like one. Sam didn’t hesitate to put himself in harm’s way.

He saw the footsteps, they diverged at the staircase.

"They spread out here," Sam thought to himself but he was more worried about the footsteps that moved up the stairs.

Sam looked back at the SUV, it was an eyesore but there was no way that whoever was there didn’t see it approaching but these footprints were recent too.

Sam sighed when he realized that he was most likely about to enter a different kind of battle.

He moved up the stairs with his pistol pointed forward, each step he took was calculated and meticulous as he didn’t know the kind of enemy that waited for him beyond these stairs.

And despite Sam’s extreme stance on things, he hoped that nothing bad happened to Lillian because he knew how it would affect Rachel.

Sam reached the end of the footprints and to his surprise, there was another.

It wasn’t just two, it was three but this one exited the room.

There was no way this belonged to Lillian, it was too big for her feet.

These were men but before Sam could think of the worst possible scenario.

He heard voices from within the room but this wasn’t Lillian’s voice.

"Lillian, you better be alive," Sam said, this wasn’t because he was worried but because he knew how much her death would undermine his ability as the leader.

He didn’t want to record any casualty that was based on his decision.

He was the one who convinced Rachel to leave Lillian here as the chances of them running into danger here were exponentially lower than them running into danger here.

This was something that everyone agreed with because they were walking into a warzone and judging from things, this was the right call because they needed everyone they had in that rescue operation.

Sam took a deep breath before kicking the door in but what he saw wasn’t what he could have guessed in a million years.

He saw three boys in their late teens but they weren’t doing anything devious.

They were playing with the boy and the toddler with Lillian chatting with the third.

"What the hell is going on here?" Sam asked.

The boys looked at Sam before looking at Lillian.

"Let me guess, that’s Sam," Jack said and Lillian nodded with a giggle.

Sam didn’t lower his gun and wanted answers but all he got in response was laughter from everyone in the room.

Lillian had clearly told them something about him to make them have the balls to laugh in his face and Sam found himself curious as to what she told them.

"What did she tell you punks?" Sam asked directly but the laughter only got louder.

"You better start talking or I will put a bullet in your heads," Sam threatened and this wasn’t a bluff but the kids didn’t think he meant it because it looked like a trivial thing to take seriously.

"If you kill us, we won’t be able to take you back to our camp. Lillian told us about you all. You’re a man that takes his anger out on the zombies but she also told us about how you struggled with drugs and alcohol after his wife left him," Carl concluded and Sam couldn’t believe the story that Lillian had sold these people.

She didn’t tell them he was in the military but made him look like some sorry loser.

Sam chuckled inwardly, Lillian had tweaked their background enough to fool these boys into wanting to take them to their camp.

"Did she forget to mention that I’m grumpy?" Sam asked as he lowered the gun with a broad smile on his face.

"We picked up on that," Jack said as they all laughed once more but this time, Sam joined in the laughter while looking right at Lillian.

"You might not be so useless after all," Sam thought

to himself because now, they had direct access to the camp that they sought.