Merbella

The Walking Dead: Los Angeles

As the two conversed Luke was mostly content to stay silent. Marshall had made it clear that he wasn’t trying to be a leader, however he did seem to act like it when the situation called, which wasn’t a bad thing. When the other guy offered him a guy he looked to Marshall, who warned him against it and simply nodded again. He was still pretty sure he wouldn’t be much use with a gun, especially a hand gun. His father had taught him how to shoot a rifle, but that had only been to kill livestock or foxes.

It was completely different to a walker or human enemy. He stayed close as the other man disarmed himself and then Marshall began checking him for concealed weapons, his grip tightening on the blade in his hand in case things went bad before Marshall passed him the gun, which he took hesitantly before they introduced themselves. He was about to speak up when a cop car pulled up and they all backed away from the cop getting out. There was a short and rather confusing confrontation between him and their new… acquaintance which escalated to frustration before Luke shook his head and decided he needed to step up.

“Look, there’s an entire town about ten minutes back that way if all you’re after is gas, plenty of abandoned cars there.” He said simply, not liking the idea of inviting more people along with them. As it was he felt uneasy enough about this guy, and not because it had anything to do with trust issues, Marshall seemed to like him and he did seem like an okay guy, but he just didn’t think decisions like this should be made my any one person. With this in mind he took Marshall’s shoulder and gently turned him away from the others.

“Look man, I know you keep saying you don’t wanna be the leader and I think that’s a good thing. I think if we want to have any chance at working as a group we should make decisions democratically, voting and majority rules. I kind of spoke up about it last night, telling everyone else. And… I think things like this, bringing new people in… I think maybe we should talk to the others about it first; see if everyone is okay with it? I’m just thinking if it were me who was back there, I’d want a say in if we took on new people.”

He looked back to the other two, especially the cop. He had kind of showed up and acted like he owned the place, like it was his business if they were bit or something. He set Luke on edge, and it seemed that Conell didn’t seem too fond of him either, the two of them together could prove problematic. Still, he didn’t seem too interested in joining them, just getting gas. Luke personally hoped he just moved on and left them to their own devices.

The Walking Dead: Los Angeles

It kind of sucks though, because when you guys post I'm at work most of the time because I'm on a totally different time zone (Australia)

The Walking Dead: Los Angeles

Completely missed that because I was writing haha. Wow.... jumped the gun a bit there haha. Looks like he's decided he's the entire army!

The Walking Dead: Los Angeles

Luke looked around as the car stopped and carefully slid Ash off his lap, getting out along with Marshall, looking as the other guy spoke softly to Sophia before he approached Luke. “Sure man, you know I’ve got your back any time. All you have to do is ask.” He answered quickly, and without thought. However the option of bringing Ash or not left him to pause for a moment. He knew he didn’t have much time to think about it, since Marshall wanted to be off now but he was torn. That would leave Ash, Maria, Sophia and Katelyn here alone with Autumn.

It wasn’t that he didn’t trust Autumn, well he was still unsure on that point. But he was concerned about leaving four girls with just one guy to protect them. However he had no clue how dangerous this trip would be, and Marshall was counting on him to have his back. He wasn’t sure he could do that effectively trying to protect Ash. In the end he decided to change the way he was thinking slightly. He wasn’t leaving Ash with one guy, he was leaving her with four capable adults. “Just give me one minute man, I’ll catch up.” He called as he quickly walked up to Autumn.

“I’m gonna leave Ash here with you guys okay? I… I’m trusting you to make sure nothing happens to her.” He gave the man a small smile, remembering that he was trying to wipe the slate clean. This would be the test to see if he could trust him or not he supposed. He then turned and told Ash he’d be back really soon and that nothing would happen to her. Standing up he walked over to the girls, checking in to see how far ahead Marshall had gotten. “Be safe, both of you okay?” He asked before turning and quickly running off after Marshall.

“Sorry about that, just…. Had to make sure everything was taken care of back there.” He said as they quickly made it to the gas station. Once there they raided it for anything left. Luke didn’t find much that could be useful to them as people, but a lot of people had overlooked car care items like oil and parts sold there. “All I could find, let’s hope someone knows how to fix cars hu?” He laughed softly. “Don’t worry about it. I’ve got your back.” He assured him.

The pair moved outside and Marshall suggested they split up into two cars. Once again Luke felt on edge about the idea of splitting them up from the group, but decided it was something he could worry about later and he began moving from car to car syphoning fuel, until he heard someone shout. A human voice. Instantly he moved to Marshall’s side. He wasn’t sure what a machete could do in a situation like this, since both the others had guns but who knew. However Marshall seemed to have the situation entirely under control and Luke agreed with pretty much everything he said.

There was no need for him to speak up right now, no need to let this man know they had a kid or a couple of young ladies with them. Marshall’s estimate of ten was a lot safer. “We don’t want trouble.” He eventually called, looking to Marshall briefly. “We just want to take our stuff and drive out of here. There’s no need for a confrontation.”

The Walking Dead: Los Angeles

That's not fair I just woke up! Wait!

The Walking Dead: Los Angeles

Well what's the point of surviving without love hu? <3

The Walking Dead: Los Angeles

Woo more girls! I was starting to get worried we were gonna get overrun by boys (says the girl with the male main character haha)

The Walking Dead: Los Angeles

Luke flinched slightly as he felt someone nudging him but he woke calmly and smiled tiredly at the other boy, sitting up and running his hand through the hair, his fingers momentarily getting caught in the curls. “Morin’ man. I slept like a log, oddly enough, must be exhaustion catching up to me, still feel a bit tired actually.” He looked over to the others and nodded slightly, figuring he could wake up the others easily enough, though he took note that Sophia was already awake. Nodding as Marshall left he looked to Ash and gently shook her, the girl groaning sleepily as her eyes fluttered open.

“Time to get up, get your stuff, we gotta get going soon okay?” He said as he stood up, looking around at the other sleeping figures. He thought he’d steer clear of Maria for now; she kinda scared him a little. Sophia could handle Katelyn. Autumn. Approaching cautiously Luke eyed the spear cautiously as he knelt down, readying one hand to grab the weapon if Autumn didn’t wake very well. “Hey, wake up.” He said gently, his eyes not leaving the spear. Reaching out Luke carefully placed a hand on the boy’s shoulder at a place where he may be able to stop an attack if one occurred.

“Autumn, wake up.” He called again. “Look… about yesterday… I’m sorry okay? I was… probably out of line and there’s no real excuse for it.” He left it at that and got up, walking over towards Katelyn before he heard Marshall yelling and he looked around worriedly, Ash looked to him fearfully as Marshall said there were a lot of walkers coming in they house and they needed to get to the car. “The side door!” He shouted, running to Ash and helping her up grabbing his own bag and machete as he led her out the door to the side of the house. Most of the walkers were focusing on the main house, the side was fairly empty.

From there it was a fairly short trip to the front and into the car, where Marshall was already waiting. He lifted Ash up into the car and then looked around. “Now you stay here alright? I’ll be right here.” He looked around once more, trying to find Katelyn and Sophia amongst the chaos. “Fuck man… I just… fuck!” He didn’t have a gun, just the machete, even if he had he doubted he would have been much use with one. He had never really learned to shoot.

The Walking Dead: Los Angeles

Throughout Marshall’s confession Luke was silent, thinking to himself. When the other boy looked to him he wasn’t sure what he’d see in Luke’s eyes. If nothing else he was glad Ash was asleep for this, after the way she had reacted to Autumn’s confession of killing his friend he didn’t want her afraid of Marshall too. He didn’t even know what to think about all of this. He was just glad it wasn’t him. He wasn’t sure he would have been able to do it. Thoughts did cross his mind similar to the words of his friend. Why not just beat him up and leave him?

Why was killing him necessary? He knew the answer, he supposed. The look in Marshall’s eyes said it all and although men like him hardly deserved to live it felt like such a waste of human life, especially when so much of it was being lost every day. He understood what Marshall had done. He wasn’t sure he agreed with it, and he was glad it hadn't been him. He probably wouldn’t have been able to do that. However he still understood it and he most certainly didn’t think less of him for it.

People he could trust completely were a rare thing right now but he trusted Marshall and knew that he had done what he thought was right at the time. He looked up at the end of his speech and gave him a small smile and a small nod to let him know they were good. He was about to get ready for bed when Maria, the woman from the camp who had offered to help him declared that she would be their leader and he stopped suddenly and looked around at the other.

“Now hold on,” he said gently, unsure how to approach this given how she had reacted to the soldier disagreeing with her last time. “No offence ma’am, but I think the group has been doing pretty good so far without a leader, we make decisions democratically, with no one person’s opinion meaning more than another. It’s been working for us so far… I don’t think we really need a leader. If it ever comes to a point where we do… then we’ll vote. Until then… well I don’t see much point changing what isn’t broken.” He shrugged slightly and went to sit on the mattress next to Ash, pulling a blanket up over her and he lay beside her and eventually nodded off into an uneasy sleep.

The Walking Dead: Los Angeles

Luke looked up sharply as the garage door suddenly opened, however smiled happily when he saw that it was Marshal and Sophia returning. He got up to greet his friend, thankful to have him back safely. “Honestly? I'm just glad you're back. Things got pretty shit once you guys left. We heard a gunshot, and got worried so Katelyn just ran out into the house with no caution, I followed to make sure she was alright and then Autumn decided to make it a party. Then we started fighting… he’s upstairs somewhere now, no clue where and Katelyn is having a bath.” He shook his head slightly, it didn’t really look all that good that they couldn’t keep things together for an hour once the other two were gone.

The boy shook his head slightly. None of them really seemed to have any idea how to work as a group, then again they hadn't really been a group for all that long, really most of them had just met today. Sophia and Katelyn would always look out for each other because they were sisters, Marshall and Autumn seemed to have decided taking care of everyone was their problem, which he was happy to let them do since he wasn’t going to make everyone his responsibility. Luke had no experience looking after people. Ash was more than he could handle at the moment.

Hell if it hadn't been for her he never would have stuck around this long. But as it was he needed people with experience looking after others, people who could take care of Ash if something happened to him. “Look man… I know you keep saying you probably won’t sleep… but I don’t think it’s a good idea to stay up all night and then get behind the wheel of a vehicle.” Luke finally said as he sat beside Marshall. “Stay up if you like, I’m not trying to tell you what to do but maybe let Sophia drive tomorrow?” He suggested, hoping Marshall didn’t take it the wrong way. But he was a cool guy, he doubted he would.

He himself was already feeling drained. Candy was all well and good but that sugar doesn’t last long when it counts. Luke could already feel himself getting drowsy. Now that the others were back safely he planned on getting some rest. He had been up since sunrise and it had been a long, very tiring day. As he looked over he could already see Ash curled up on a mattress dozing off. She was trying to stay awake, but every now and then her eyes would close and just not open again.