A place to call home

Chapter 1: walker invasion

Warning, if you have not played the Walking Dead Game Season 2, this story contains spoilers.

Greetings my fellow Walking Dead author's. Here I bring you my next story, but I cannot take full credit for this one. This story was written with the help of author A Writer With Mixed Interests. Both of us worked on this story together. Be sure to check out her stories sometimes.

Anyway, as you can tell by the description, this story is an "What if?" story. What would have happened if Carver never shown up at the ski lodge during the walker attack. I will be taking a break from There's always hope until this story is finished because I'm thinking up some ideas for it.

To make this story a little different, we decided to add it some features to make it look like the game like the choices and what they affect. You'll see what I meant.

And I bet ya'll thinking "Blah, blah, blah, this author talks to much.". Here's the first chapter and hope you all enjoy the story and any questions, let me know.


After the wind turbine began to rapidly spin out of control that would attract walkers, the former cabin group and the ski lodge quickly ran outside to shut it down. The transformer nearby had overloaded and Kenny and Luke volunteered to check it out, leaving Clementine, Carlos, Nick, and Sarita to shut down the wind turbine. They had to be fast.

Carlos opened up the power box to the wind turbine, but all he could see inside was darkness. He turned towards Nick and Sarita for help. "Does anybody know how to do this?"

Clementine turned towards Nick and Sarita, but neither of them had a clue either. She sighed and stepped forward. "I can do it."

"Okay." Carlos nodded, taking out his Glock 17. "We'll watch your back."

Clem took out her butterfly lighter and lit it, now she was able to see inside the wind turbine. She immediately grabbed the hanging key and twisted it into the lock, shutting it off.

"Good work, Clem," Nick praised, nodding at her.

The all-too familiar groaning of walkers could be heard nearby. Clementine, Nick, Carlos, and Sarita began shooting at them.

Clementine fired all her remaining rounds towards eight walkers advancing towards her, but she tried to save bullets now that they did not have much ammunition left. She took out six of them, but when she pulled the trigger again, the gun only clicked.

The walkers moved closer towards her, but before she knew it, they were both shot down. Clementine turned towards her savior to see it was Carlos, who quickly told her to escape.

"Quick, go!-" Carlos cut himself off when he felt a walker almost grab him from behind, but he was swift to escape and was able to kill it, but he lost his rifle in the process that the dead walker collapsed on.

He did not have time to retrieve it and quickly ran back towards the ski lodge.

Nick fired a few of his rounds towards walkers, but due to his bad aim, he was not making much progress. He decided to run away instead.

Clementine took her chance to escape before more of them showed up.

Nick ran and attempted to go for the ski lodge, but a walker came almost out of nowhere and grabbed his wrists, preventing him from moving anywhere. He struggled to break free.

"Somebody help me!" he pleaded, hoping that someone would hear him. He heard Clementine calling his name, and he turned his attention towards her. "Please help me!"

Unfortunately, Clementine didn't have a gun on her.

The capped man continued to struggle, but right as the walker was about to take a chomp out of him, it was shot dead. Nick turned and was shocked to see that it was none other than Walter who had saved him. Even after he had accidentally killed his partner, Matthew, on the nearby bridge.

Nick looked at him gratefully, and Walter lowered the gun and ran away.

Clementine followed Nick and Walter towards the front of the ski lodge where Carlos and Sarita were holding back the advancing walkers. There were at least twenty of them left, but they had to save as much ammunition as possible.

"Clem, get inside!" Carlos ordered, being protective of Clementine like a father-figure. He aimed his gun with the rest of his comrades and fired their remaining rounds towards the walkers.

Clementine ran inside the ski lodge where Rebecca, Alvin and Sarah were watching the entire event via a window. She ran into the living room and joined them in the now dark ski lodge.

"Clementine, are you okay?" Rebecca inquired with a hint of concern in her voice. It was hard to believe this was the same woman who wanted her gone a few days back.

Sarah stood at the window behind Alvin, watching fearfully as her father and friends shot down the oncoming walkers. She hoped everyone would come back unscathed, especially Carlos. If Sarah lost him, she wouldn't know what to do. She wouldn't be the same.

Clementine nodded and told Rebecca of the situation. The older woman suddenly looked worried.

Outside, Carlos fired two more bullets before his gun clicked. He was now out of ammunition and so were the others. They had nothing left to shoot with. "I'm out of ammo!"

"Me, too!"

"And me!"

The walkers were advancing towards them and the group members were left defenseless. What were they going to do now? If they simply ran, they would only be followed and trying to beat them down was not a good idea.

Before any of them could think of an idea, a gunshot echoed throughout the air and a single walker collapsed onto the ground face first.

Carlos turned towards the woods and saw two familiar figures appear, but neither of them were walkers. "Luke! Kenny!"

Almost immediately, Kenny took his rifle and shot a walker that was dangerously close to biting Sarita. When it was down, he gave Carlos a single, curt nod.

Kenny and Luke took down the last of the walkers, and luckily, everyone came out unharmed. Everyone that was watching inside breathed a sigh of relief.

"Are you two okay?" Walter question in a concerned tone.

"Yeah," Luke replied, placing his hands to his knees and panting for a moment. "Yeah, we're fine."

"Now what?" Kenny spoke up.

"We don't have any more ammunition on us." Carlos explained, looking into the distance where they remaining walkers limped towards them.

"Kenny, do we have any more ammo?" Sarita asked her boyfriend in a quick tone.

"Inside," Walter stated. "Quickly now, they're gaining."

Walter and Kenny walked inside and grabbed another box by the kitchen counter, but Kenny stopped to talk to Clementine.

"We'll be back in a moment, darlin', there's just a few more that we need to take care of," he told her.

("Just go!")

("Be careful.")

("Do you need help?")

("...")

"Okay, but be careful." Clementine warned him. She believed it was fate that brought her and Kenny together again, and she did not want to lose him again.

"Kenny!" Sarita called out to her boyfriend for assistance whilst she reloaded some rounds into her Winchester Model 17.

Carlos and Nick were handed their shots of ammunition, and once again they were able to shoot the lurkers down. They all hoped that the noise wouldn't attract more of them.

Eventually, the walkers were all shot down, and Nick looked around, slightly panicked. "Are there...are there more of them?"

"No, I don't think so," Luke answered, his brown eyes scanning around.

Sarita looked around for a moment with her rifle aimed, but was relieved to see no more of them lurking around the area. "We should head back inside."

The others nodded in agreement and walked back into the ski lodge via the main entrance. On the way, Nick turned towards Walter and gave him a nod as to say "thank you" to which Walter had returned.

The group walked inside and set all of their weapons down onto a table. Clementine, Alvin, Rebecca and Sarah were standing there to greet them and hope they were okay.

Carlos sighed as he rubbed his hands through his hair, hoping his daughter had not witnessed what they had to do out there.

Sarah immediately ran to her father and embraced him tightly, to which Carlos returned.

"Is everyone okay?" Rebecca asked almost frantically. Alvin placed a hand on her shoulder to calm her down.

"We're okay, Kenny and I came back at just the right time," Luke replied, glancing at said bearded man. "There were some close calls when we ran out of ammo, but...yeah, we're fine."

("It could have been worse.")

("We got lucky.")

("Is it over?")

("...")

"We got lucky no-one got hurt." Clementine told them whilst she crossed her arms together. She sighed in relief nevertheless.

(?) They will remember that.

"It's okay, sweetie, it's okay." Carlos soothed, gently rubbing his hand up and down her hair as he held her close. He let her go after a moment and placed her hands upon her shoulders. "Why don't you head back to bed? I'll be there soon."

"Okay," Sarah nodded obediently and headed upstairs to the room she would share with Carlos (which had two single beds).

"It's getting late anyway," Walter announced, but had a sad expression on his face. "It was Matthew's night to keep watch..."

"What?" Kenny asked, confused.

Nick took off his hat nervously rubbed his hand through his hair for a moment. Now it was the hard part he was not looking forward to, but like it or not, he had to tell Kenny and Sarita the truth.

Meanwhile, everyone else departed. Clementine went towards the living room area with Luke, Carlos went to put all the weapons away before he would check up on his daughter, and Alvin and Rebecca decided to go upstairs and sleep for the night.

Sarita took note of Nick's sudden change of expression and could not help but inquire. "Nick, is everything all right?"

"Uh, um...can I talk to you both for a minute?" Nick asked, looking almost fearful. "It's pretty important."

"We can talk in the living room," Kenny replied, a suspicious look in his eyes. He led the way to the living room, he and Sarita sitting on the sofa across from the fireplace, and Nick in one of the chairs. Walter was leaned against a wall, his arms crossed. He was going to let Nick handle this.

Nick sat down in the armchair and nervously rubbed his hands together, unsure on how this was going to go.

Sarita and Kenny sat together and waited for what Nick had to tell them that were so important.

Clementine and Luke had left the living room the second they noticed the four of them approaching and already figured out what was going to happen. For now, the duo went into the cafeteria area for a while to be out of the way.

"It's about Matthew..." Nick trailed off. "I...I saw him on the bridge, talkin' to my friends. I saw the gun, and I thought...he was gonna shoot 'em. I swear, I didn't hear anything he said to them. I didn't know he wanted to help, and he drew his gun on me, and..." He placed his head in his hands. "I shot him. It was an accident, I swear! Walter saved my life, even...even after I killed him. But he forgave me. I'm so sorry. I'm so, so sorry." He looked up and gave the couple before him an almost pleading look.

Sarita and Kenny looked at one another, and then turned to Walter.

"I forgave him," Walter confirmed. But his expression remained stoic, in grief for his lost partner.

Sarita and Kenny turned towards one another as they held hands. Both of them looked both shock. Nick was not looking forward to seeing Kenny's reaction, especially after their first meeting.

Kenny was just like him: short-tempered, but Kenny was a lot worse than Nick. Any minute now, he could just charge towards Nick like a rampaging bull and beat the living hell out of him. He certainly was not looking forward to this.

Sarita turned back towards Nick after she and Kenny talked privately with a normal expression across her face. "Nick...I...Well, we're sad that Matty is dead. He was a good friend, but you said it was an accident. I forgive you, Nick."

Nick felt somewhat relieved to have forgiveness from Sarita, but now it was Kenny's turn.

For a few moments, Kenny was silent. His dark orbs stared into Nick's blue ones, almost as if he were trying to decide what to say next. But then he sighed.

"I guess if Sarita and Walt can forgive you, I guess I can too," he spoke up.

Nick let out a breath that he didn't realize he was holding. No longer did he have to look at these people, people who gave him a kindness that he felt he didn't deserve, and feel guilty. "Thank you. Thank you so much," he said in relief.

"Don't mention it." Sarita assured with a slight smile across her face. However, a yawn soon followed and she stood up and proceeded to get some sleep for the night. "I think I'm going to head to bed for the night. You coming, Kenny?"

"I'll be up soon, hon," Kenny reassured her, smiling lightly. Sarita nodded and headed for the stairs.

Luke noticed, and turned to the little girl sitting across from him. "I think it's safe to go back there, Clem. You comin'?"

Clementine was too deep in thought to hear the older man talking to her. She was too busy looking at a torn of photo of the man who took care of her, protected her in this world, and became a father to her after her real parents died.

His name was Lee Everett.

She remembered the day when she was only little and did not understand this world too much. She remembered the drugstore where Lee torn a part of a photo off a family photo of him and his family. Before they left, Clementine had grabbed it and kept it for a long time without him know.

Clementine dazed out from her thoughts when she heard Luke calling her name. "Huh...? Oh, yeah, I'll be upstairs in a minute..."

Luke nodded, and turned in the opposite direction to head to bed.

"You're strong, Clem. You...you can do anything." Some of Lee's last words replayed in the eleven-year-old's head over and over again. Clementine sighed and held the photo to her chest closely.

"Clem?"

The girl jumped and turned around; looking into Kenny's concerned eyes. "You okay?"

("No.")

("I'm okay.")

("I don't know.")

("...")

"Oh, yeah, I'm okay, Kenny." Clementine assured. She stood up away from the table and stood before the older, bearded man. "I was just...I..."

She could not say this without words. Instead, she handed the photo over to Kenny, hoping that would be reason enough to explain why.

Kenny looked at the photo in surprise, and then a profound sadness washed over him. "Lee. God, he was such a great guy. Thought the world of you. I miss him."

("I miss him, too.")

("I wish he was here.")

("It's my fault.")

("...")

"It's my fault...I was stupid." Clementine admitted, a tear dripping from her eye. She looked down towards the ground and felt a wave of guilt over her.

(?) Kenny will remember that.

"Clem...darlin', that ain't true," Kenny told her softly. He knelt down and pulled her into a hug. "Don't you ever say that it was your fault, y'hear me?" he whispered into her ear. "It's all right now. I won't leave you."

"Thank you, Kenny." Clementine whispered, returning the hug to the older man she had been reunited with not too long ago. She leaned out of the hug and smiled as Kenny had his placed upon her shoulders and returned the smile.

"Go on up to bed, Clem," Kenny nodded towards the stairs. "You look like you could use some sleep."

Clementine nodded in agreement before she went upstairs and towards her bedroom down the hallway where the rest of the rooms were. She tried to keep quite along the way to avoid waking the others up.

She climbed into her bed and kicked off her shoes but kept her hat on like usual. She drifted off into a peaceful sleep.


And that was the prologue to this story. Since I pretty much mentioned everything above, hope you guys and gals enjoy the story so far and hope you will keep tuned for the next chapter. Be sure to leave a review.