69 The Group Arrives

We had just gotten back to the St. John dairy, Mark was shot in the back, and I was almost out of ammunition, today was not shaping up to be a good day.

Andy saw us and looked horrified as he ran towards the three of us.

"Lee, what's wrong?" Andy asked.

"I thought this place was safe!" Lee said angrily.

"Holy shit! A-are you okay?" Danny who heard the commotion and walked over asked.

"Fucking bandits! They have no right being out here on our property!" Andy said angrily.

"Oh my lord! What happened to you sweetheart!?" Brenda asked from the porch of their home.

"It was those bastards in the woods mama!" Andy said angrily.

"Yeah... I'll be alright once it's out, but goddamn it hurts..." Mark complained.

"Hey Y'all" Kenny, who just got here with the rest of the group, including Zabuza and Riza but excluding Carley, Ben, Travis and Orochimaru, said.

"Mark! Oh my god, what happened?" Katjaa asked.

"He got shot with an arrow," Lee said.

"Christ! Are you going to be okay?" Lily asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine... I should just... pull it out..." Mark said weakly.

"Oh no honey, C'mon, Brenda's got you. C'mon inside now. We'll have you all sorted out" Brenda said, as she walked him and Katjaa to the house.

"What kind of shithole is this?" Larry asked.

"We ran into some people on the way up here... bandits I guess, I think it was them who attacked us," Lee said.

"They gave us a lot of problems in the beginning, killed a bunch of our farmhands. We were able to get 'em to stop by makin' a deal" Andy said.

"You KNEW about these people!?" Kenny asked angrily.

"Food for protection. Not like we had much of a choice, but they did stop hasslin' us" Danny said.

"God damn it! Carley said this place was locked down tight!" Larry said angrily.

"It was just a fluke thing... we can't just stop assuming there aren't bad people out there," Lee said.

"What the hell do you mean, "a fluke"!?" Lily asked.

"It could have happened anywhere, it could have happened to us in the motor inn," Lee said.

"Listen, we may have had an agreement with those people, but we will NOT stand up for this shit!" Andy said angrily.

"Ain't no way we're gonna let those sons o' bitches get away with this" Danny said.

"You know where these assholes are?" Kenny asked.

"They're hard to pin down. But I think I know where at least ONE of their camps are" Danny said, "When you're ready to go scope out that bandit camp, come find us"

Andy and Danny walked away, as Doug walked to us.

"Oh, hey guys!" Doug said with a smile.

"Hey Doug," I said.

"Uh... what happened?" Doug asked.

"Mark got shot while he and Lee were working on the fence, I covered them," I said truthfully, "Basically ran out of all of my ammo too"

"Bandits? Are you serious? This place isn't safe, we can't stay here" Lily said.

"Not safe?! This place is a hell of a lot safer than that motor inn! I think all of us and our guns can handle a couple of punks with bows and arrows!" Kenny said, "What we need to do is find a way to get the whole group out here to stay, take this whole place over if we have to..."

"I agree," I said.

"Whoa, cool your jets Rambo's, these are nice people. Let's not do anything to get us thrown out before we eat!" Larry said.

"I'm gonna head out and help Dan with these bandits. You guys should try to make friends with Andy and Brenda while I'm gone" Lee said.

"Well that's easy, I've got charm coming outta my ass," Larry said.

"Yeah, that's... real charming, dad," Lily said.

"Where are Ben, Travis, Orochimaru and Carley?" Lee asked.

"Since those three ate some of the food on the way to get us, they volunteered to stay behind and watch the motor inn until we get back, and Orochimaru wanted to see if those teenagers had any mutations that could help us," Lily said.

"Alright" Lee said.

Andy, who was watching us, walked up to the kids.

"Hey kids, look what Lee got working for ya!" Andy said as he pointed at the swing.

"A swing! I love swings! Just like at my treehouse! Come on, Duck!" Clementine said as she floated over to the swing, using her Air Manipulation.

"Thanks, Lee, you're the best," Clementine said, as she floated to the swing.

"Yeah!" Duck said happily.

Everyone went to look around the farm and Andy just looked completely baffled at Clementine.

"H-how?" Andy asked.

"Remember what I was saying about mutations?" I asked.

"Yeah" Andy answered, "Why?"

"Well, the walkers weren't the only ones who mutated," I said, a smile forming on my face.

"...D-does that mean others in your group are mutated?" Andy asked.

"Yeah, a few of us are... but, I'm not going to tell you what sort of mutations they are as I don't completely trust you yet," I said.

"Okay, that makes sense... well, bye," Andy said as he walked to the house, "I'm gonna go check up on your friend"

"Alright..." I said, as I began to look around, bored, "Now... what's the best way to cause some... chaos before we take these guys over?... Hmm, maybe I could save that woman... uh, Jolene? And have her talk..."