Chapter 14: Come and Get Your Love~!

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Next update? Fuck this cultivation world!

_______

Chapter 14

Clementine stared down at her silent radio, a sad look in her eyes. 

She was by herself, alone in her room, wanting to be alone with her thoughts.

She knew it was hopeless to believe her parents were still alive… but she couldn't help but hope. 

Hope that they were still out there, somewhere, still alive, still surviving just like her. 

At least life was better now, thanks to Leo and his group; she was no longer starving and felt more energized than she had in weeks.

Her thoughts turned to her own group, and a smile slowly appeared on her lips.

Lee was getting better, his face slowly regaining the healthy color they used to have, thank god.

Kenny and Katjaa had stopped fighting as much now that food and safety were no longer constant threats. The tension that used to hang between them like a storm cloud had begun to lift, replaced by something peaceful.

Duck, who she considers to be her overly energetic, dumb little brother, was back to his old self. 

Which was a huge relief, she was beginning to worry about how quiet he was. 

She tensed when she heard the sound of knocking on her door, but relaxed when she heard Duck's voice. 

"Hey, Clem! Ghost gave me this really cool game called Uno! Wanna play it with me and Leo?"

She smiled at his invitation and was about to say yes, but stopped when she heard Leo's voice.

"Duck!" Leo's voice came from just down the hall as he rushed over, panicked and hissing like he was trying really hard to whisper-yell. "I told you not to mention me when inviting her!"

"Huh?" Duck blinked, genuinely confused. "Why?"

"Because!" Leo whispered, sounding like he was halfway to dying of embarrassment. "Because it's—we talked about this!"

"But why? It's just Uno." The younger boy asked in confusion.

"Exactly! It's just Uno! Now she's gonna think I'm—"

Click.

The door opened.

Leo froze mid-sentence.

Standing in the doorway was Clementine, arms crossed, a smirk tugging at the corners of her lips.

She arched her brow teasingly. "Gonna think you're what?"

Leo blinked.

His mouth opened.

Then closed.

Then opened again, like a fish trying to breathe air.

Duck looked back and forth between them with an innocent shrug. "I don't get it."

Clementine let out a small laugh and leaned against the doorframe, eyes soft.

"You're such a dork."

Leo groaned and buried his face in his hands. "Please forget this entire interaction."

"Not a chance," she grinned, stepping out of the room and giving him a light nudge on the shoulder. "Come on, dork~ Let's go play some Uno."

Duck pumped his fists in victory. "Yes! I call dibs on the red cards!"

"That's not how the game works, Duck./That's not how the game works, Duck."

________

"How did this happen?" Leo asked himself while putting down a red four.

"You tell me, this was your idea." Ghost sarcastically said, putting down a wild card and turning it yellow. 

It started off well enough with just Leo, Clementine, and Duck enjoying the game. 

And he would like to say he was absolutely kicking ass getting down to three cards with ease. 

But then Clementine, being the sore loser she is, said that Uno was played with four people, not just three, and invited Lily, who just happened to pass by, to join them.

He suddenly went from three to ten, much to Clementine's satisfaction.

Then Duck, who was having the time of his life, got carried away by his mother and father, who told him it was time for him to take a bath.

The boy went kicking and screaming.

Then Lily invited Ghost over, who also happened to be passing by. 

Which brings us to now.

"UNO!" Clementine called out, waving her UNO card up proudly. 

Ghost got skipped.

"UNO!" Lily went next, waving her own UNO card as well.

"…Shit." They said at the same time, looking down at their own cards.

Five for Leo.

Seven for Ghost.

Leo stared up at Ghost, who was in front of him, and asked the question they were both thinking.

"Team up?"

The reply was instant.

"Team up."

They weren't competitive; they just didn't like losing.

"So, how's the packing going?" Clementine asked the older woman, acting as if she wasn't smug about currently winning.

"We're done packing and loading everything, right now we're just waiting for the RV to get fixed up, and we'll be ready to go." She answered, hiding her card protectively from wandering eyes.

"How long would that take?" Clem looked over to Leo, who felt her gaze and turned to look at her with a glare.

"Yes, how long, Ghost~?" The woman looked at Ghost with a smile.

"Soon." 

Hearing his answer, she turned towards Clementine, completely serious.

"Soon."

That got a laugh from the younger girl.

Leo put down a draw four, cutting her laugh off instantly.

Clementine narrowed her eyes on the card.

"You," she muttered, glaring at Leo.

"Wow," he said, feigning offense as he leaned back and fanned his cards like a villain in a cartoon. "So much hostility from someone who was just laughing a second ago."

Ghost, grinning beneath their mask, dropped a skip card. "And now it's my turn."

"No, wait—" Lily protested, her smile fading as Leo slapped down another card.

"Draw two."

Clementine groaned as she reached for the deck, pulling her punishment while accusing them, "You two are working together!"

Leo gave her a sly look. "That's what we call synergy."

"Or desperation," Lily added, elbowing Clementine gently as the two of them shared a look that clearly said we're not going down without a fight.

"You know," Ghost said conversationally as they placed a green nine on the pile, "this is probably the most intense game of Uno I've ever played."

"That's because she becomes a card shark with a vendetta if she starts losing." He pointed at her, smirking.

"I do not!" Clem protested, right before she slapped down a skip card. "Lily, your turn."

Leo stared in disbelief. "Did you just skip me?"

"Oh, I'm sorry," Clem said sweetly. "Was it your turn, dork?"

"Alright, that's it." Leo grinned and pointed at Ghost. "Lock in."

Ghost gave a solemn nod, raising their hand like a general issuing a command. 

They put down a few more cards until the game once again became even.

"Your move, Clem," Leo said smugly, eyes gleaming.

Clementine, undeterred, placed a blue two.

"Wipe the floor with 'em."

"Gladly." Lily played a wild card. "Yellow."

Leo blinked, his hands made mostly of blue, and then looked at Ghost, who was just as devastated as he was. "Wait, what? Where did the blue go?"

Clementine snorted. 

Ghost drew a card, silent and solemn, like someone waiting for reinforcements to arrive.

Then they drew another.

And another.

Six cards later

"…You good?" Clementine asked, raising an eyebrow when the masked man let out a long sigh while clutching his ten cards.

Ghost held up a hand, still drawing. 

"I… am re-evaluating my life choices."

Leo leaned over to peek. "You just drew six in a row."

"Seven." Ghost sighed while hiding his cards from himself.

Leo winced in sympathy. 

As the cards shuffled and the friendly competition simmered, a small lull settled over the group, just long enough for Clementine's voice to break the tension.

"How are the others who voted against going… doing?"

The question hung in the air like smoke. Lily didn't answer right away. She stared at her cards for a moment, then let out a long, tired sigh.

"My dad's… not taking it well," she admitted quietly. "He's been in his room since the vote. Only comes out to eat. Won't talk to anyone or even me, he just sits there and glares like the whole world betrayed him."

Ghost glanced at her briefly, but said nothing, sliding a card onto the pile in silence.

"Mark and Carley are still unsure," Lily went on, drawing a card and not even looking at it. "But at least they're not being difficult about it. They're… hesitant, but not hostile."

"That's something," Clementine offered softly, placing a card down with less flourish than before. "At least they're not arguing back and forth and getting nowhere."

Lily let out a small chuckle, the kind that came from being tired more than amused. 

"No progress, no peace," Leo said absently, examining his cards. "Just a loop of yelling and blaming."

They nodded at his words, agreeing with him.

"I just…" Lily trailed off, eyes drifting toward the RV outside the window. "I want us to be strong, to survive, but every choice seems to split us a little more."

"You're doing the best you can," Clementine said gently, reaching out to give Lily's arm a small squeeze. "You're trying to hold our group together, that's not easy."

Lily looked at her, and something in her expression softened. 

The leader melted away for a second, leaving just a tired daughter who missed her dad and hated feeling like the bad guy.

"Thanks, Clem," she said quietly. "And you're right if all the group ever did was fight and argue, we'd never get anywhere."

________

Rick found himself standing toe-to-toe with Shane just beyond the edge of camp.

Birdsong filled the air, but it couldn't drown out the arguing of voices rising between them, or the tension that crackled like a live wire.

They've been at it for what felt like hours now, with Rick trying to convince Shane and Shane resisting.

And they weren't the only ones arguing.

The entire camp was doing the same.

"I'm tellin' you," Rick said, jaw tight, hands gesturing emphatically. "They're offering us a chance for something better. Do you really wanna pass that up?"

Shane crossed his arms, his stance firm and expression hard. 

"And I'm tellin' you," he shot back, "you're bein' naïve."

Rick frowned as he stopped walking. "Naïve?"

Shane took a step closer, eyes flashing with disbelief. "You trust a bunch of armed men in masks! You even hear yourself, Rick? We don't know who the hell they are, and we don't know what they want!"

"They brought me back to my family, Shane!" Rick snapped. 

"Sure," Shane sneered, voice dripping with sarcasm, "Real noble, but they still wear those freaky-ass masks, don't they? Not to mention the fucking fact they haven't told us what they want from us."

Rick's jaw clenched, but he didn't look away. 

"They have their reasons! Besides, why does it matter if they wear masks?! That doesn't mean they're bad people!"

"Or maybe they wear 'em because they have something to hide!" Shane growled. "You ever thought of that?"

Rick looked away for a second, hands clenched into a tight fist. 

His thoughts drifted to Leo, the boy with a face littered by scars and the bone-deep exhaustion flickering behind his eyes. 

The kid wore the look of someone who'd walked through fire and somehow came out the other side still carrying a smile in defiance of everything that had tried to break him.

He met Shane's gaze again, glaring with steel. 

"I think they've seen more shit than we can imagine and maybe they're hiding behind those masks because it's the only way they know how to keep going."

Shane sighed and shook his head. "It's a risk, Rick. A big one and I'm not gonna gamble with people's lives just because some guy in a mask says he's got a better place."

Rick stepped closer, lowering his voice so only Shane could hear. "Then don't do it for him. Do it for the kids, the people who are hanging on by a thread out there, for Carl and Lori."

Shane didn't answer. He just stood there, arms crossed, jaw tight, staring past Rick at the camp behind him.

"…Do you really believe that they're serious about helping us?" He finally asked, rubbing the back of his head before walking off again.

Rick sighed, seeing the long battle he had ahead of him. 

At least he had three more days to convince him.

"They are some of the most serious people I have ever met."

_____

The music blasted throughout the neighborhood through speakers mounted on the roof of a truck.

The beat bouncing off empty houses and echoing through the streets like a war drum made of lyrics.

Usually, people would try to make as little noise as possible during these trying times, where corpses walked and tried to eat the living.

Where making too much noise would mean death.

Where a single bite could turn you into one of them.

…usually.

Come and get your love~!

Leo moved through the neighborhood like a predator on a hunt, his dragon mask covered in blood. 

He was surrounded by lifeless corpses and walkers, with more coming.

His coat whipped behind him as he sprinted forward, swinging a two-handed hammer axe clean through the head of an oncoming walker. 

Bone split, teeth clattered to the pavement, and the body crumpled.

Another walker rushed from his side, Leo didn't bother to turn.

CRACK

An arrow came from above, and the walker's skull and brain matter sprayed across the driveway. 

Archer gave a two-fingered wave from the ledge of the building he was on, before turning in another direction and loading his crossbow again.

Come and get your love~

Three more walkers groaned and growled their way towards him, making him take a deep breath before a wide, powerful swing sliced through three rotting heads at once.

That would make it forty-two kills for the day.

"Gotta say," Shield muttered as he calmly walked up to him while cleaning his shield of guts, "this is easily the dumbest and most effective idea you've ever had."

Leo, panting from how long they've been at it, just gave a grin behind the mask. "That's what I'm known for."

Their group of clones and people who were willing to help were spread out, clearing other areas of the neighborhood, using the same tactic. 

"East is good!" Butcher called over the comms. "I count thirty-five down, eight more on approach. We're thinning the herd."

"West is clear! No more of them are showing up," Snake chimed in. "Cleaning up now."

"Good progress is being made, guys, two more hours and we can head home and enjoy a nice warm meal!" Leo encouraged getting a shout of joy from his people.

Five more walkers made themselves known while he was talking.

Come and get your loooove~

Leo ducked under a swiping arm, pivoted low, and drove his hammer axe into the base of the walker's skull. 

He didn't linger; he kicked away the walker he had just killed and swung his weapon down on another two.

Shield had his back, his shield bashing the heads of the walking corpses into paste with ease.

More groans answered the noise they were making.

More were coming as time went on.

But that was fine.

That was the point.

They were pulling walkers away from the vulnerable perimeter of their community, the same way a magician uses sleight of hand with noise, movement, and confusion. 

All to keep the real trick hidden.

Leo pressed a hand to his comms. "All units disengage in ten and regroup at outpost Echo."

The response was a chorus of affirmatives.

He turned just in time to see the last of the small herd following the sound trail left by the music, all of them shuffling further from the direction of their home.

And standing in the street, Leo watched them charge at him, the wind tugging gently at the hem of his coat.

His mask didn't smile, but underneath, he did.

"This should be enough," he muttered as he grabbed hold of a walker by the back of the neck just as it was about to bite him and slammed it into a car.

Behind him, the song hit its final note.

Come and get your love…

And with one final walker dropping to its knees in the distance by an arrow, silence returned to the neighborhood.

But it was the right kind of silence.

The kind that meant, for a couple of days at least, everyone back home was safe from walkers.

Letting out a tired breath, he flicked his hammer axe to get rid of the blood dripping from it. 

"Leo!" A voice called out to him, causing him to turn towards where it came from.

It came from a guy near his age, if not a year or two older. He had light blonde hair, thick black glasses, and freckles on his face.

It was Feddy, one of the newer people his guys saved from getting trapped in a warehouse with a group of walkers.

He was also one of the few people whom he considered to be a Best Friend.

"I just killed six walkers! By myself! That has to be enough to earn me the mask!" He was smiling wildly, full of pride.

Leo smirked and was about to respond when he was cut off by someone else.

"Calm down, son, and don't exaggerate your numbers; most of your kills are thanks to me." Freddy's father, Markus, patted his son on the head with a cheeky smile.

Leo couldn't help it; he barked out a laugh, a deep, genuine sound that echoed off the cars and bloodstained pavement.

"You really think killing six walkers gets you the mask?" he asked, slinging his hammer axe over his shoulder as he approached. "C'mon, Freddy. It takes more than that."

Markus grinned and gave his son a pat on the head. 

"Told you."

Freddy, not missing a beat, puffed his chest out, not willing to give up. "Okay, okay, then what does it take? I mean, really, how do I earn one?"

Leo stopped in front of him, resting the hammer axe against the ground with a low metallic thud. 

He tilted his head, considering.

"You've gotta beat one of my guys," he said simply before shrugging. "Or me. One-on-one, no help, no crying when you get your nose broken. Then you gotta complete a series of challenges, scavenging runs, stealth operations, and walker lures. We don't hand these masks out for style points, Fred. You earn them by proving you can carry the weight."

Freddy's eyes went wide. "Wait, beat you?"

Before Leo could answer, Freddy raised a hand and pointed at him like he'd just found a shortcut through life.

"Then I challenge you! Right now!"

Leo blinked once, then laughed again, even harder this time.

Markus groaned and dragged a hand down his face. "Jesus Christ, Freddy…"

A firm slap landed on the back of Freddy's head.

"OW! What the hell, Dad?!"

"Boy," Markus said, rubbing his temples like he suddenly aged ten years, "did you miss the part where he's swinging a goddamn hammer axe with one hand like it's made of plastic?"

Freddy rubbed the back of his head, still defiant. 

"So? I've been working out!"

Leo just leaned against a nearby truck, clearly entertained. "I like the spirit, but if you're trying to impress me, maybe try not offering yourself up as a punching bag before you're actually ready."

Freddy opened his mouth to argue again, but his father shot him a look.

Leo shook his head, still grinning behind the mask. 

"You wanna earn that mask? Start by surviving weeks of patrols with Butcher. If you're still standing, maybe we'll talk about a light spar."

Freddy gulped; the thought of going on patrols with Butcher was too much for him.

"…Butcher scares me," he muttered under his breath.

Markus clapped a hand on his son's shoulder. 

"Good, means you're not completely without survival instincts."

As the sun began to rise higher in the sky, Leo glanced back at the street full of walker corpses and blood-soaked pavement.

He turned to head out, hammer axe resting across his shoulders.

"Come on," he called over his shoulder. "Let's get everyone home, we'll let the clean-up crew do their job."

And without missing a beat, they followed after him.

________

The trip back was quiet, for the most part.

No more walkers, no more shouting or music, just the steady crunch of boots on dirt and pavement as Leo led his people home. 

The blood was starting to dry on their weapons, their coats, and their boots, but none of them looked too concerned about it.

As they walked, other teams began to fall in with them, reconvening after a long day. There were nods exchanged, tired smiles, a few playful shoulder bumps between friends and comrades. 

All of them carried weapons, while some others pulled small carts with salvaged supplies or buckets of water from a nearby creek.

They got back into their vehicles they arrived in, and began driving back.

Rows of cars slowly followed each other back to their base.

It wasn't long before the sound of shovels striking dirt reached their ears.

Then the walls came into view.

Or rather, what would be the walls.

The barricades weren't finished yet, wooden frames and bricks still not high enough to be called a proper wall, but it was a start. 

Just outside the makeshift gate, a group of workers were still digging a deep trench, sweat shining on their backs, voices low as they coordinated shifts.

They parked their cars in their designated area and got out with sighs of relief.

Inside, it was alive.

People bustled about, moving like ants in controlled chaos. Some were hauling bricks and reinforcing the west barricade. Others were prepping what little farmland they had, loosening soil, planting seeds. 

Smoke curled from where cooking fires had already been lit, and the faint scent of stew or something close to it lingered in the air.

They stepped past the incomplete outer wall and were immediately spotted.

Cheers and cries of relief rang out from the crowd.

Dozens of people from family and friends came running to greet the returning squads. 

Arms wrapped around each other, people breathing out in relief, gripping hands tightly like they feared letting go would make them disappear again.

His men moved out, their duty not yet over, and left him by himself.

Leo slowed as he watched it all unfold.

One woman threw her arms around her husband and kissed him on the lips. 

A man dropped his shovel and sprinted across the clearing to embrace his brother. 

A little girl ran to her father with a bright, innocent smile and hugged his legs.

Behind the dragon mask, his smile was small, bitter, and tired. 

He was happy for them, truly, but it made the pain in his chest ache just a little more. He had no one to run to, no warm arms waiting to embrace him. 

Just the ever-growing list of things that needed to be don—

"Leo!"

His head turned toward the familiar voice.

Morgan stood a few feet away, beaming like the sun had finally come up just for him. His sleeves were rolled to his elbows, hands still dirty with soil. 

Behind him stood Jenny and Duane, also in patched-up work clothes, holding farming tools.

Duane raised a fist, grinning for a fist bump.

Jenny smiled warmly. "You're late for lunch, sweetie."

Leo stared for a second, that old ache spiking before fading just slightly. His tired smile curled into something a bit more real.

He walked forward towards them and gave the younger boy his much-desired fist bump.

Morgan stepped in and pulled him into a rough hug, clapping him once on the back. 

"Good job out there," he said with quiet sincerity. "You brought 'em all home again."

Leo returned the hug briefly, then pulled back with a grunt. "Some of 'em did more heavy lifting than me, but thanks~"

Jenny stepped forward and gently dusted some dried blood off his shoulder. 

"You stink," she teased, affection in her voice. "But we're still glad you're back."

Leo chuckled, the sound quiet but genuine.

"Yeah," he murmured, glancing around at the people reuniting, laughing, rebuilding. "…Me too."