I do not own The Walking Dead. It is the property of both Robert Kirkman and Telltale Games.

Shit.

He had hoped Lilly had been wrong, that the stressed administrator had miscounted and been paranoid. Alternatively, that Duck had been bored and simply tricked Lee by making a mystery that he would never solve. Alas, the brown bag of meds was in his hands and the pink Xs and broken flashlights actually mattered. It all pointed to a traitor, and now the three weeks of almost peace since the St. Johns' Lee had cherished would have to end. There would be another argument, and either Kenny or Lilly would decide to split the group for good.

There was time to fix this. Lee knew that Kenny would not be dissuaded from finding a boat. It was his career before the world went to hell, after all; he could fish, navigate through stormy weather, presumably escape watcher clutches and if not, find a place remote enough to try. Lee understood that his moustachioed friend saw this as his only chance at a future but all Lee pictured was a boat out a gas; in the middle of winter and some ocean. That is if Kenny could even find a boat.

True, the motel would not be much better. Macon would be almost bled of supplies soon enough and the bandits would make a move for their stuff. Lee didn't know much about heaters but he was pretty sure that the motel ones were powered by gas and if not, there was an option of using one of the portable generators Carley had grabbed from the electronic store or lighting up small fires in either garbage cans or the motel lobby fireplace. The light would be contained from the walkers at least.

Speaking of, what happens to walkers during winter? They truly were mysterious creatures, taking all sorts of assorted damage and still moving. Seeing things without any eyes and surprisingly not ballooning up underneath the Georgian sun (Lee had watched a gross documentary once about flesh decomposition a t the behest of a colleague, heat and dead skin don't mix.) Could they freeze? If so, that would actually be a reason not to stay. Macon didn't have Canada-like winters.

As for defences, Trevalier Motel was not ideal. The bandits proved that in their first attack two weeks earlier, sending arrows over the fence and car barriers. Lilly had managed to tag one in the gut with her rifle, which caused them to scatter. There had not been an attack since and now there was someone hiding away meds from the group. It was not hard for Lee to piece together. When they recovered, Lee was sure they would forgo archery and just drive a car through their barrier with their men behind them to take position. If that happened, life at the motel would be over. Even if everyone lived, walkers would show up hearing the gunshots to finish them off. No, they would have to get the upper hand now or retreat.

There were two places Lee had in mind. Lee and the others (minus Ben) had already visited Robins Air Force Base a couple of months ago in search of supplies and military personnel. They had encountered Mark and all the glorious stockpile food and blown through that in three months. Lee was sure there was more at the time but walkers came. There would be plenty of specialty items and probably a source of power, beyond that though; it was a lot of ground to cover and too desirable to other people. Besides, none of them knew how to fly a plane.

The second option was Fort Benjamin Hawkins; an old Creek Nation trading post that served as both a centre of trade and military command headquarters. It would be a good vantage point over the town, and personally, Lee was giddy to see the new excavations that they had done on the fort era items as he'd been incarcerated when they opened. The only problem was that Fort Hawkins was little more than an elevated wooden palisade; if a fire happened they would burn, if walkers surrounded the place the group could not leave and it would let the bandits know exactly where they were.

Decisions, decisions… Lee knew that the next few months would be full of them; that he would have to juggle Kenny and Lilly's wishes, the traitor, the bandits, Winter, Clem's growing desire to go to Savannah and finally the horde of undead monsters that wanted to eat them all.

The first decision was easy: Lee put the bag of medicine back into the ventilation shaft and headed back to Lilly's room.

He was sure someone was watching him from the woods.

And there you have it. Prologue done.

This fanfic is a diversion from Long Road Ahead primarily set in Macon. I haven't decided yet if Christa, Omid and Chuck will grace themselves again or if there will be new characters. Anyways, I'd appreciate honest reviews. This is my first fanfic so I'd like it to be good with your help :). I procrastinate so don't expect regular chapters.

I'd like to say thank you to Telltale for creating such an awesome game.