Episode 3: Old Friends

Dex walks the lonely road to his destination, he doesn't encounter much on the way, he sees a crossed out map. Dex approaches it and sees that it has "Not Safe" written big and bold with blood on it. "The hell kind of warning is this? What's not safe exactly" He looks in the direction of where he needs to go in with great caution. Dex slowly approaches a sign that says, "Site B - Mel's Hideout" Dex smiles a bit and walks to the right and goes on the final stretch until he hopes to find his old friend. Dex finds the location and sees that it looks abandoned, that doesn't stop him, he enters the main building and sees a few beds and lanterns, one still lit up. "Someone's here, hope it's Mel and not some assholes who shoot on sight." Dex walks around a bit in search of clues, he notices a door that was cracked open, Dex walks up to it and hears a slight sound, it was hard to make out. Dex entered and it was pitch black, but he didn't have a flashlight anymore so he hoped nothing was there.

Dex walked around a bit and then saw a walker standing there, it turned and when Dex got spooked by it's melted face he jumped back. Dex struggled to get his machete but was cornered quick, Dex grabbed his knife and the walker grabbed him. Dex struggled for a bit and couldn't get it off, before he gave in to how tired he was, a blade went through it's skull. As the walker fell Dex heard a woman's voice say, "Follow me if you don't want to become dead food." He didn't ask many questions as they left the room and went up the stairs, "Who are you?" she didn't respond because she didn't want to draw attention, Dex got the hint fast. They walked up the stairs and went to the door on the top, it led to the roof of the place. When they opened it there was something blocking the door, "Shit not again, you, come this way, there is another way on to the roof." Dex and the woman entered a dark hallway and there were some walkers in the offices there, Dex saw one standing by a big window looking in their direction. The hallway was very quiet, despite all the walkers in it, Dex walked around the papers and cups on the floor and tried to avoid the blood everywhere. The woman stopped and slowly began to open a door at the end, when it got stuck, she knew the only way was to make noise and run. She grabbed it and turned to Dex and said a bit louder, "I'm going to open this and we run up the stairs and out the door at the top, it's the only shot left."

Dex nodded and stood up to keep watch as walkers began to go to them, some fell through the windows into the hallway. She tried as hard as possible to open it while Dex fought, Dex looked around to see if there was anything to use as a distraction, he saw nothing. Dex remembered his bow and he grabbed it and began to load it and frie a couple arrows into walker heads. The woman finally opened it and she hurried him through as she followed, when the door was jammed they ran. Walkers were following them all the way up the stairs and they had a couple flights to go through, they eventually made it and they got to the roof where she was camped out on. Dex put a metal crate in front of the door and backed away slowly, the woman stared at him and said, "I've only ever seen one person use a bow like that and not miss under pressure like that." She silenced Dex as he tried to respond, she got a good look at him and removed her mask and goggles and said faintly, "Dex..." Dex realized who it was and Mel hugged Dex, "I...I didn't think I would see you again, after...." Dex then responded with, "I've been searching for my friends recently, I got split up from them a while back after some things went down..." Mel asked what happened exactly, Dex took a deep breath and said, "I'll tell you by that fire over there, we will need to have a seat before catching up with each other."

The Supply Run:

Sarah leads Lamar, Jack, Will, Mitch, Izzy, Dom, Kate, Jim through the nearby town on their way to Fort Cambell, they were on horse back. Will catches up to Sarah and says to her, "How did you find me? There was so much in between us and you still managed to find me, how long were you searching?" Sarah looks at the trees as they pass by and she responds saying, "When I met Dex we travelled through Georgia searching for you, we went through so much, I didn't think that I would ever find you, but we never gave up, we had common goals after a while. I couldn't have done it without Dex, or anyone at Willmington, somehow I feel as if we were destined to meet and put an end to these Raiders." Will chuckles a bit and says to her jokingly, "You and those spiritual beliefs." Sarah laughs and says, "Well it gets me through tough times." They all keep on riding to Fort Cambell, it was a long journey on horse back, but the journey to Willmington would end up being faster in the trucks. Sarah presses onward with them despite the sun going down, they pass by a couple roaming walkers down the highway. Jack notices how overgrown it all is and says, "Damn I remember when everything was well maintained and wasn't overgrown to hell, seeing nature take over really tells you how long this thing has been going on for." Lamar realizes something and chuckles before saying, "Damn almost half a decade, just a short time left, can't believe I was just finishing high school when shit went down, now I'm here." Kate notices a sign across the highway and says, "Hey guys, we're getting closer, that sign across the road says we got about 5 miles left until arrival." Mitch pets his horse as he mentions how he cannot wait to finally get that mission over with.

They keep riding for a few miles and they start seeing more signs for Fort Cambell and they knew they were close. They pass by an old military checkpoint and it seemed as if it was overrun pretty early on based off the old corpses all over. They keep on riding and take a left turn into the woods where they intersect with an old dirt road. Sarah sees the old military outpost and sees an old run down Fort Cambell sign by it, "Alright we're here, stay vigilant and smart, we don't know what's inside this place, don't split up unless told to do so, I don't want any more casualties than we already have. They all dismount their horses and tie them up to old street lights and generators to keep them from wandering off. Sarah pulls her gun out and the group follows along with her, Sarah walks through the front gate and aims her gun. Jack quickly slides in and has her back and they give the all clear for entry, Lamar walks in and says, "I swear if there are some greedy pricks in here waiting to get the jump on us I'm going to be mad." Jack jokingly responds with, "Don't jinx us man" Izzy walks over to the door that leads into the fort's main area, since it was the only way in or out for protection purposes by the military. "Alright, get ready, when I open this door it's go time, don't hesitate, we get in and get out." Mitch nods and Izzy opens the door, they all quickly enter in an orderly fashion.

Sarah enters a room and sees that it was picked clean, she looks over at the wall and sees that someone had left a message on the wall. "Guys! Come in here." Sarah waited as everyone came in eventually, Jim saw the wall and said, "Don't screw with Ryker's crew, and this shit won't happen again? What the hell... You think this Ryker guy is tied to the Raiders in any way?" Kate walks up to it slowly and says, "It has to be... Ryker must be The Boss.... If he made it out of the Compound and to his men so damn easily then maybe Dex made it out, or anyone else." Sarah was bothered by Dex being mentioned and said, "Ryker ran like a coward, if he wasn't such a coward and didn't run then maybe Dex would be here still, maybe we wouldn't be out here trying to get revenge, Hailey would be here, hell maybe we'd be back at Willmington..." Jack put his hand over her shoulder and said, "We're in this together, there's no telling what could have happened if things were different, trust me, I wish things were different but this world isn't too well known for giving second chances, Dex accepted it knowing that we'd be safe, if he didn't do that then we'd all be dead. We'll find Ryker, and we'll avenge him. Trust me, I want revenge too, we all do... We all lost something that day." Sarah wiped the tear off and nodded she turned to them and said, "We gotta get the supplies and we need to head back to the Compound and Willmington to see if we can salvage anything and to give our friends a proper send off." Lamar stepped into the conversation by saying, "Back in the beginning I was in a place like this, there is always a secret stash of emergency supplies in the basement, if we're lucky the stuff will be there."

Sarah nodded and she told Mitch and Will to come with her and told the rest to ready the horses. Sarah and Mitch opened the door and Will followed them all the way down the hall, Mitch saw how empty it was and said, "I don't like this one bit." Will took note of this and said, "Ryker's Crew always set up ambushes out of places like this because it's an easy way to get their prey as The Boss always said." Sarah saw the basement door and said to them, "Let's hope it's just an empty place, no Raiders" They all walked down the stairs and into the basement, it was full of old but in good condition stuff, Sarah grabbed her list and said, "We can't take all of this but grab all you can, make sure you have room for the paracetamol, Insulin, Alcohol, and Gauze, we'll send a crew out with a truck to retrieve the rest of the supplies." Will searched around with his flashlight, he came across a desk, he opened it and found a key, he then looked around and saw a box bolted to the wall, he then said quietly to himself, "This key must go to that box... I hope" Will approached it and turned around to grab the padlock, he unlocked the box and opened it, "Bingo" Will grabbed the gauze that was inside and stuffed it into his bag, he turned around and said to the others, "I got the gauze" Mitch looked at some bottles and said "I think this is paracetamol, looks like it at least, I'm no expert." Sarah just got done grabbing insulin, she then began walking up the stairs and said, "Let's go, we need to get out before we find out if Lamar jinxed us or not."

They walked up the stairs and down the hall, once they got out Jack walked up to them and said, "We're being watched by Raiders right now, Lamar spotted some, we're keeping a low profile, the Raiders want us to leave so they can ambush." Sarah nodded and put her bag on her horse, Mitch loaded his gun and got ready, Will ran over and told Sarah that some Raiders were approaching, Sarah walked through her group and their horses and stood at the front gate as Jax, Ryker's right hand man stopped in front of her. "That's not your shit bitch, hand it all over now, or we'll kill you slower than we already will." Sarah remembered what Jack said about stepping up, she took a deep breath and said, "We need it more than you asshole, why don't you bring Ryker over so we can talk face to face." Jax chuckled a bit and said, "I like your spirit, you don't back down, but that will get you killed too. Ryker isn't available at the moment he just got done dealing with one of your friends not too long ago, maybe like yesterday, I don't remember all I know and care about is you're all dead." Sarah looked confused and said, "All my people were at Gate City yesterday, and the past two weeks." Jax then replied with, "Quit lying bitch." Sarah got confused and Jax then said, "I'll tell you what, we'll let you go if you promise me one thing... Tell good ol' Monroe over at Gate City that he will be sorry for what he did soon... Keep the meds as a parting gift, I'm feeling generous today... And you'll need them soon anyway." He started to laugh a lot as Sarah walked over to Kate and told her to load up, as they got on their horses, and left quickly Jax hollered at them saying, "SOON!" Jack rode up to Sarah and said, "Who do you think he meant by one of our own?" Sarah refused to accept any possibility of Dex so she responded with, "Maybe a straggler from the fight, not everyone left with us."

They rode long and hard, they didn't slow down they just kept going and going and going down the long, empty lonely road. Eventually a few hours later they made it back to Gate City where James and Dr. Green were waiting for them, Sarah got off her horse as Mitch got her bag, she said to James, "We need to talk now, it's urgent." James took her off to the side and Sarah looked at everyone as they unpacked and talked to Dr. Green, she then said, "We were stopped by one of Ryker's closest allies on the way out, he mentioned something about an attack soon. We need to prepare now, I've seen this happen twice to a community, when Ryker gets mad he will go full force, he burnt all of Willmington down to the ground just for some people." James looked at the ground and then responded with, "Thanks for telling me this Sarah, we'll prepare, I don't want this to stop you from going back home to give your friends a proper burial, I'll give you guys a truck and some supplies, don't worry about us, we'll be fine, just don't die, family is more important than anything" Sarah hesitated but then she thanked him, she didn't like leaving them without the extra fighters so she told Mitch, Kate, Jim, Izzy, Dom to stay back and aid Gate City. Sarah gathered Will, Jack, Lamar and they got ready to head out and they did.

Mel:

Dex looked at Mel and said, "A lot has happened in the time we've been apart... I am sorry for your loss, I truly am, if it weren't for them I would have died a long time ago." Mel looked at him and said, "Like you said before, we're all we have left" Dex played with his knife a little bit and took a deep breath before saying, "Why did you do it... Why did you just leave..." Mel looked at the fire for a bit and said calmly, "I... I couldn't force myself to hold you back... My grief would have slowed you down and would have got you killed, I couldn't lose someone else I cared for so... so I left, I thought that maybe it would clear my mind of the whole thing but the truth is it didn't... " Dex kicked some rocks a bit and said to her in response, "Well now we have each other..." Mel looked at him and asked, "What about your friends that you are searching for?" Dex pulled out a little map and pointed to a place on it that said, "Gate City, Safe Zone, Status: Rebelling" Mel looked at him and said, "I know that place, I used to live there for a year and a half before me and my friends wandered off and got stranded, and decided not to return after a while... If your friends made it anywhere around the Kentucky/Virginia/Tennessee border then they would have met a patrol by then, it's a big place, they'll be there." Dex looked a bit more hopeful and said, "Will you go with me Mel? This time we can stick together, you're one of my best friends, I don't want to lose you again." Mel nodded and said, "I'm assuming you've met Ryker and his crew already?"

Dex looked at her and nodded, "He uhhh... He's the reason me nd my friends aren't together right now." Mel looked at him and said while grabbed her bag and said, "They took my friends not long ago, I've been alone since then, maybe when you get to your friends at Gate City you can help me. When we arrive to Gate City I'll do the talking, I know them, they trust me." Dex got confused and asked, "But didn't you just leave and never return?" Mel smiled and said, "That's the beauty of this place, you aren't forced to stay, you come and go, as long as you aren't a dick about it, it's like a trade town." Dex nodded and they began to go down the stairs on the wall and when they got to the ground level they used the dead of night for stealth to begin their journey.