Chapter Twenty-Four: The Cliffs

Another forty minutes had passed while they were talking, and it was really only making her even antsier that the others hadn't got back yet. It was already near five-thirty in the morning and already the Californian sun was starting to shine its rays through the small windows in the garage. A sort of peaceful understanding seemed to have been reached in the car and a comfortable silence had enveloped all the residents in the vehicle.

"Why are they taking so long?" Chris whispered, staring at the rearview and side mirrors for a glimpse of his parents.

Martina hummed quietly, "Maybe it taken them some time to find the others. They'll probably be here soon."

"Do you think they'll be pissed that we decided to wait here?"

She turned to look at Alicia's worried expression, "Nah, I think when they finally get here they'll be relieved we decided to stick around." The younger girl nodded while Chris groaned.

"I just wish they'd hurry the fuck up already," he complained, "I mean it's been what an hour and a half already? Right-"

"Alicia!" a familiar female voice shouted.

"Chris!" Travis called out.

As one, all of their eyes widened excitedly as they scrambled out of the car and responded, "Here! We're here!" Pingu slipped out of the car with Alicia and bounded over dragging his leash behind him, as he inspected all of the returning members before stopping to sniff out a dark-skinned man Martina didn't recognize.

"Mom!" Alicia sprinted into her mother's arms.

"Dad. Dad..." Chris repeated as if in shock as the man pulled him into a tight embrace.

"Are you okay? What happened?" Travis exclaimed. But Martina ignored the tearful reunion happening behind her, eyes locked onto only one person.

"Oh, Alicia!" Madison gasped, "Are you hurt?"

"The soldiers, they took the SUV." Chris blurted out, "I'm sorry."

"Marty!" Nick gasped out as he quickly pulled her into a hug that Martina fully reciprocated, "Shit, I-I was so worried about you."

"I tried, Dad." Chris said mournfully as if it was his fault the SUV was stolen like a fifteen-year-old kid was supposed to be able to fend off three grown-ass men with guns.

"Christopher! What happened to you!" Liza exclaimed as she ran to her son and began inspecting Chris's swelling bruise, ignoring her son's protest claiming that he was fine.

"Me?" Martina mumbled as she pulled out of the embrace slightly to stare at him reproachfully, "What about you? I was so scared when those assholes took you. Are you hurt?"

"I'm fine." he whispered softly, rubbing away tears she hadn't realized were streaming down her cheeks, "You know me, I'm like a cockroach, I'll always come back." earning an amused snort from her.

"Idiot." she mumbled lovingly.

Nick only smiled before tugging her over to meet the new man, "Marty this is Victor Strand. He saved me while we were in the pens." he introduced with a hint of gratitude in his tone, "Strand, this is my girl, Martina."

Martina shot the man a grateful but weary smile, "Thank you. Feel free to call me Marty." she offered. The man's dark eyes were calculative as he observed her even if he absentmindedly rubbing the top of Pingu's head. Strand nodded. That was good enough for her, at least for now they had more pressing matters, "I think we should continue this reunion later and head back to the cars. We already had to deal with three gilipollas earlier and I don't feel like doing it again. Pingu, come." as she began leading Nick and the german shepherd to the red SUV.

"We must go now." Daniel agreed in a louder tone as he tried to break up the tearful reunion.

Pingu suddenly stopped in his tracks, his head swinging around before letting out a low menacing growl. Martina felt her hair stand on its ends as she grabbed the leash and started searching for what was setting off the german shepherd.

"What's wrong?" Nick asked just as Martina caught sight of movement behind one of the cars and let out a whispered curse.

"Salazar." a man croaked out as he cocked his gun, it aims never straying away from Daniel's head. Martina only needed a second to recognize him as the Corporal that Daniel had tortured for information on the medical facility. This was not going to end well. Nick quickly moved in front of Martina, trying to shield her from the mad looking man while Pingu continued to let out angry low growls.

"Andy?" Ofelia whispered loudly as if the enranged looking man pointing a gun at her father's head was simply a mirage before repeating his name once more strongly, "Andy? Hey." the tan woman stood up from where she'd been sitting on the floor in a defeated manner, that could be explained by the lack of Griselda with the group, and moved closer to her father while lifting her hand up, "Andrew. Put the gun down. You don't have to do this, okay?"

"Ofelia." Daniel hissed in a whisper as he held his own arm up for Ofelia to stop and move away. Pingu tugged on the leash as he snapped his teeth angrily and growled even louder making the sound carry.

The black-haired woman ignores her father, "What are you doing? Just put the gun down."

The haggard Corporal began eyeing Ofelia despite never aiming away from her father. His cold eyes went back and forth between his once girlfriend to the man who'd tortured him for, what Martina assumed, was hours.

"Andrew, don't do this. Please, please, please." Ofelia begged. An ugly look formed on the soldier's face as his fury seemed to lock onto Ofelia.

Martina glared, "Pingu, attack." she commanded as she let go of the leash.

"Andy?" Ofelia questioned.

Pingu barreled into the Corporal just as a gunshot rang through the air and Daniel shouted, "No!" as Ofelia was clipped in her right soldier. The german shepherd was growling furiously as he bit into the man's pant legs while Travis ran and tackled the Corporal to the ground and began beating his face.

"You're okay. It's okay. Let me see." Daniel commanded nervously as he kneeled down beside his daughter as Liza ran towards them. Pingu continued barking and growling at the men on the ground only adding to the chaos as Liza and Daniel began tending to Ofelia. Travis was still beating the downed man savagely.

"Trav. Leave him," Madison started, "Travis. Leave him."

The man threw another fist into the man's face as he breathed heavily, "Leave him." Madison stated again as Travis shakily stood up and Madison placed a hand on this arm and led him away, "It's okay."

"Pingu, come!" Martina commanded strongly, the dog only hesitated for a moment before bounding over to her as the beaten man coughed wetly. She greeted the dog kneeling down so she could cradle his furry face in her hands, "Good boy." she praised before grabbing his leash and leading him to the car and telling him to jump in.

Lukas was blinking sleepily at her from his seat, "Wha' happened?"

"Everythings, okay squirt." Martina smiled at him reassuringly, "We're getting ready to leave now."

"Nicky's back?" Lukas asked excitedly.

"You bet I am. Miss me?" Nick teased with a wide smile as he popped his head through the door, earning a wide grin from her little brother.

"Yeah! Lots!" Lukas chirruped, "We were really worried!"

Nick chuckled, "Don't worry squirt, we'll catch up in a little bit."

"Kay!" the six-year-old squealed as they shut the door. She could hear Lukas break out into giggles as Pingu began bathing the little boy's face in doggy kisses.

Travis and Daniel helped Ofelia onto the bed of his truck while Madison instructed the teens and Strand to get in the cars. Nick didn't even hesitate as he went around to get into her passenger seat while she climbed in and turned the engine on. Strand joined the Clark matriarch in her car with Alicia while Chris climbed into the truck with his dad. Liza was in the bed of the truck as she began treating Ofelia's shoulder. Within three minutes they were all pulling out of the garage and pulling onto the highway as they escaped from the chaos behind them.

The sun had risen during all of the drama in the garage, as Martina diligently followed the Clarks blue car. There were a few infected on the road but the cars sped by them without any trouble.

"Do you know where we're going?" Martina asked curiously, this was not in the direction of campgrounds.

Nick raised his left arm to sling it over the back of Martina's chair as his fingers played with the short brown strands of her hair, "Strand has a house on the ocean. I think he's got a girl waiting for him there, Abigail."

Martina nodded as she followed the other cars as they pulled off the main road and into the river canal, "And after?"

"Don't worry, Marty. We'll be okay, we're together now." Nick said in a soothing tone as he lowered his window. They passed by a car that had crashed into the canal at some point and had burned, "That's nasty."

"What?"

"One of the dead bas- um, guys is trapped in there all burned up." Nick explained as he glossed over the bad word.

"What's wrong with him?" Lukas asked curiously.

"Oh, um." Nick shrugged awkwardly as he watched Martina's little brother nervously, "He's dangerous, so we have to stay away from guys like that."

"Okay..." Lukas agreed though, with a quick glance at his face through the rearview mirror, Martina could tell that he wanted to ask more questions. Martina was going to have to sit her brother down at some point and explain to him the dangers now plaguing the world. That was not going to be fun. It took them twenty minutes to reach Strand's house- a mansion really as they pulled into the garage area.

Strand practically flew out of Madison's car as he started typing into his alarm code to get into the house. Everyone else wasn't far behind as they all started getting out of the vehicles. Lukas and Pingu, in particular, were excited to stretch their legs as they followed the man into the enormous property. Nick held onto Pingu's leash as he led the group in, Martina herself held onto Lukas's hand tightly as she observed the high-class furnishing of the house.

"Anyone hungry?" Strand asked as he suddenly appeared into the room, "Help yourself."

She let Lukas tug her towards the back yard overlooking the ocean and grabbed Pingu's leash from Nick so her boyfriend could talk to his mom in peace. It was probably a good thing too, since the german shepherd was practically shaking as he relieved himself on one of the bushes. Lukas only smiled widely as he pointed at seagulls flying through the beautiful blue sky as the waves lapped against the beach and the rocks. Martina watched the waves with the same awe and wonder her little brother was. That was when she spotted a white boat rocking with the waves a few miles offshore.

Maybe it belonged to Strand? The boat definitely seemed like a better place to bunker down in. The infected wouldn't be able to reach them, the only problem she could foresee was other living people coveting it for themselves.

"Come on Lukas, let's go inside for a bit. I want to talk to Nick for a little bit." Martina instructed as she pulled her pouty little brother and dog inside. "Don't worry, squirt. We'll go out again in a little bit." she promised before walking up to Alicia and Chris, "Hey guys, can you watch Lukas for a minute. I need-"

"No problem." Chris interrupted, "Come on Lukas, I spotted some popsicles in the freezer."

"Yay!" Lukas cheered as he followed the other boy, Alicia hot on their trails as they headed for the refrigerator. Martina quietly made her way through the house as she searched for Nick and Strand before following the voices into a very fancy -which was a synonym for expensive in this case- bedroom. The two men were on the balcony peering through binoculars pointed in the direction of the sea... probably at where the white boat was anchored.

"So is this the plan?" Martina asked, starling the two, "Boarding the boat, well yacht, anchored offshore? Because if it is we need to start unloading all of the supplies we have in the cars and moving them to the beach."

It didn't look like there was a feasible way to get the cars down to the beach from the cliffs. Which meant they would have to manually unload all of their supplies and carry them down there. Strand probably has a motor raft to transport them onto the yacht but it would take time to ferry things back and forth, Martina had an emergency inflatable raft in her camping duffle bag that could be tied onto the motorized raft so that they could bring more things with every trip... but still, they should start all of that now.

Strand smiled, "Well then, you certainly are smart." he stated as if he hadn't expected it at all, "And quick, she's right." the man agreed as he turned to look at Nick who was smirking, "We better get started."

A single gunshot echoed hauntingly from the cliffs.

Words 2333

(There are very little stories written for this fandom, and I really wanted to try writing one for myself. I'm a huge TWD fan, and I only recently started getting into FTWD. I've really been enjoying it so far and it was fun writing this fic since it really starts off at the beginning of the apocalypse...)

(End of Season One and this story. If you all liked it, please let me know in the reviews and I'll get started on working on Season Two! I hope you all enjoyed my take on FTWD and the additions of my original characters. Martina's presence in this universe does have an impact on Nick, considering their close relationship, and on his actions... so that's why he's a little out of character compared to the person we have met on the show.)

(If you guys have any questions feel free to ask! Or if you simply want to make any suggestions feel free to leave a comment! For those of you who like TWD, feel free to check out my two TWD fanfics: Pogonip and Unexpected!)