WHITE FLAG

chapter five : comedy club
{ season one - episode three }

KLOE STEPPED OVER to Zayn and Glenn, who were both standing in the same place they were before. They both glanced at the girl as she approached them carefully.

"Hey," Zayn greeted. "We were just talking about you."

Her eyebrows raised, locking eyes with her ridiculously tall brother. "So, in the five minutes I was gone, you were talking about me?" she chuckled.

"Why not? You're interesting to talk about," Glenn spoke up, an innocent grin sprouted across his lips.

"I'm not sure if that's supposed to be a good thing or a bad thing," she commented, smirking. The sound of Rick and Shane's voice appeared behind the three young adults. Kloe whipped her head around as she watched as the two men walked over to the center of the camp. Rick had his sheriff uniform on.

"Could you just tell me why?" Shane asked with anger laced in his voice. "Why would you risk your life for a douche bag like Merle Dixon?"

"Hey, choose your words more carefully," Daryl said, crossbow and arrows in his hands.

"No, I did," Shane remarked. "Douche bag's what I meant. Merle Dixon. That guy wouldn't give you a glass of water if you were dying of thirst."

"What he- what he would or wouldn't do doesn't interest me," Rick spoke bluntly. "I can't let a man die of thirst. Me." Shane scoffed in disbelief. "Thirst and exposure. We left him like an animal caught in a trap. That's no way for anything to die, let alone a human being."

Shane eyed his best friend as he strolled away. Kloe shifted her eyes everywhere for a moment, to spot almost every camper that was in sight had their eyes on Rick.

"So you and Daryl, that's your big plan?" Lori inquired. She sat down beside her son, Carl. Rick sighed and, hesitantly, spun on his heel, facing Glenn, Zayn and Kloe.

"Oh, c'mon," Glenn groaned, as did the brunette girl. She swirled her head slightly, Zayn was moderately glaring into Rick's eyes.

"You two know the way. You've been there before. In and out, no problem. You said so yourself." Whilst Rick spoke, Kloe noticed Glenn remove his cap, brushing his hands through his hair as he placed it back on. "It's not fair of me to ask, I know that, but I'd feel a lot better with you both along. I know she would too," he motioned towards his wife, Lori, who lightly shook her head.

"That's just great," Shane spoke up. "Now you're gonna risk three men and a woman, huh?"

"Four men and a woman," T-Dog corrected.

"My day just gets better and better, don't it?" Daryl scoffed.

"You see anybody else here stepping up, to save your brother's crack ass?" T-Dog questioned.

"Why you?"

"You wouldn't even begin to understand," T-Dog paused, before continuing. "You don't speak my language."

"That's five," Dale commented.

"Make that six," Zayn chimed in, stepping forwards. His younger sister felt her eyes widen in surprise at his offer.

"Even better," Daryl mumbled.

"Well, that's six," Dale corrected himself.

"It's not just six. You're putting every single one of us at risk," Shane pointed. "Just know that, Rick. Come on, you saw that walker. It was here. It was in camp. They're moving out of the cities. They come back, we need every able body we've got. We need 'em here. We need 'em to protect camp."

"It seems to me what you really need most here are more guns."

"Right," Glenn commented, a smile slowly forming on his face.

"The guns," Kloe remembered, the same smile setting on her lips.

"Wait, what guns?" Shane inquired.

"Six shotguns, two high-powered rifles, over a dozen handguns," Rick listed. "I cleaned out the cage back at the station before I left. I dropped the bag in Atlanta when I got swarmed. It's just sitting there on the street, waiting to be picked up."

"Ammo?"

"700 rounds, assorted."

"You went through hell to find us," Lori reminded. "Y- you just got here and you're gonna turn around and leave?"

"Dad, I- I don't want you to go," Carl begged.

"To hell with the guns. Shane is right. Merle Dixon? He's not worth one of your lives, even with guns thrown in," Lori stood up as Rick stepped into her direction. "Tell me. Make me understand."

"I owe a debt to a man I met and his little boy," Rick informed, causing Lori to scoff in disbelief. "Lori, if they hadn't taken me in, I'd have died. It's because of them that I made it back to you at all. They said they'd follow me to Atlanta. They'll walk into the same trap I did if I don't warn him."

"What's stopping you?" Lori asked with a softer tone.

"The walkie-talkie, the one in the bag I dropped. He's got the other one. Our plan was to connect when they got closer."

"These are our walkies?" Shane questioned, rubbing his hand against his chin.

"Yeah."

"So use the CB. What's wrong with that?" Andrea asked, her hair was a little messy considering she hadn't brushed it yet.

"The CB's fine. It's the walkies that suck, they're crap," Shane confirmed. "Date back to the '70s, don't match any other bandwidth. Not even the scanners in our cars."

There was silence for a moment, before Rick tilted his head at his wife, "I need that bag."

She didn't answer, instead she gazed to the ground, unsure of any words to try and reason with her husband. Rick took a few steps away from his wife and knelt down to his son, Carl.

"Okay?" Rick asked softly. Hesitantly and reluctantly, Carl nodded his head.

...

"Are you sure you wanna go?" Kloe asked Zayn, who was leaning against the scarlet red car Glenn and her stole the day before. "I mean, you've never gone on a supply run before. So, are you sure you wanna go to save somebody?"

"My question is, do you wanna go?" he pushed himself off the car and stepped over to his sister.

"Answer my question first," she retorted firmly.

"Yes, I'm sure, Klo. If anything, I'd feel better if you stayed here," Zayn placed a hand onto her shoulder. "Shane's right in some way. If there's gonna be walkers getting up here, you'd be the best chance we got."

Kloe gazed down at her boots for a moment to think. He was right. "Okay," she gave in easily, "I'll stay. You can go," she glanced back up at her brother and shared a quick smile. Kloe spun her head around to Rick, who was still standing in the same place. "Rick!" she called out.

He switched his eyes from the ground to the brunette, beginning to stumble over towards her. "What is it?" he inquired.

"I'm gonna stay," she informed. "I'll protect the camp, I'm a good shot with my bow," Rick stared into her dark brown eyes, obviously hinting he still wanted the young archer to come. "You have Glenn, Zayn, T-Dog and Daryl. So I think it's best if I stay, just in case walkers do come up here."

Reluctantly, Rick nodded his head, sending a quick smile before his attention fell on the van Glenn was reversing. Kloe watched Rick walk over to Dale and Jim with T-Dog by Rick's side. They began to talk about something, but it was too quiet for the girl to hear, despite having very good ears.

Daryl climbed into the back of the van, watching Rick's conversation. Kloe left her brother's side, walking over to the car door where Glenn was set. She knocked on the glass window, catching his attention. The two friends shared a smile before he rolled down the window.

"Are you not gonna hop in?" he asked.

She shook her head, "I'm not going," she apologetically smiled as she watched her best friend's smile drop.

"What, why?" he peered over the open window, his eyes flickering between the girl and her brother, who stood a few meters behind her, also watching the conversation Rick was having. "We always go together to Atlanta."

"I know, but I have to protect camp. Besides, you'll have Zayn with you," Kloe reasoned, gesturing to Zayn.

"It's not the same," he whined. "For the last two months, we've gone on supply runs with each other. Always."

Before the Schmidt girl could speak, Daryl harshly stepped towards the driver's seat and pushed his foot against the steering wheel causing a loud blaring noise to fill her ears. Subconsciously, Kloe threw her hands to her ears and grimaced, leaving her ears frantically ringing.

"Come on, let's go!" Daryl yelled.

Kloe lifted her head back up to Glenn and apologetically smiled, "I'm sorry. I'll see you soon! Stay safe!" The girl got a smile in return as he rolled up his window and gave another small smile through the reflective glass.

The brunette girl switched her eyes to the tall, male figure that was standing in front of her. "I'll see you later, all right? Don't get into any trouble," Zayn stated, wrapping his arms tightly around his sister's back. Before she could say anything, he hauled himself up into the semi-truck.

"Hey, Rick," Shane spoke up. "Got any rounds in the python?"

Rick stayed silent for a moment, before beginning to speak, "No."

"Last time we were on the gun range, I'm sure I wound up with a few loose rounds of yours," Shane shared a compact, silent laugh.

"You and that bag, like the bottom of an old lady's purse."

"I hate that you're doing this, man," Shane muttered. "I think it's foolish and reckless. But if you're gonna go, you're taking bullets."

"I'm not sure I'd want to fire a shot in the city," Rick sighed. "Not after what happened last time."

"That's up to you," Shane lifted his hands, with three bullets in one hand and two in the other, leaving him with five in total. "Six men, five rounds-"

"Five men," Kloe corrected, the attention falling onto her, "I'm not going."

Shane nodded his head, facing back to Rick, "Five men, five rounds. What are the odds, huh?" The two men sighed. "Well, let's just hope that... Let's just hope five is our lucky number, okay?" he placed the five bullets into Rick's open palm.

"Thank you."

"All right."

Rick turned away, walking towards the door of the truck to enter the passenger side. Kloe took a few steps back, watching the truck carefully. Worry was buried into the girl's young heart. The two people she cared about most in this world were in that semi-truck, and who knew if they'd make it back? Zayn and Glenn were the only people she deeply cared for.

The truck's engine started, making a revving sound. Kloe bit the bottom of her lip as it began to drive away.

...

Andrea, Jacqui and Kloe walked towards the water with the baskets full of laundry in their arms. Kloe had decided to help out with the laundry considering there was nothing else better for her to do. Practically, she was bored out of her brain without Glenn and her older brother around.

In the distance, the brunette girl could hear Shane and Carl attempting to catch frogs. They were being exceedingly loud.

"I'm beginning to question the division of labor here," Jacqui mumbled. Simultaneously, the three of them glanced over at Shane and Carl. Shane was splashing the water frantically, encouraging Carl.

Kloe playfully rolled her eyes as she set herself down beside Andrea, who handed her over a sponge. Kloe placed one of Zayn's clothes into the clean, blue water, scrubbing it with the sponge.

"Can someone explain to me how the women wound up doing all the Hattie McDaniel work?" Jacqui asked, squeezing out the water from one of the clothes.

"The world ended. Didn't you get the memo?" Amy grinned. Kloe slightly peered over her shoulder, spotting Ed, Carol's husband, sitting on his car trunk with a cigarette in between his fingers.

"It's just the way it is," Carol spoke up, passing over a t-shirt to Jacqui.

The five of the women continued to scrub through the clothes, cleaning them so they were spotless.

"I do miss my Maytag," Carol broke the silence, staring into the water.

"I miss my Benz, my sat nav," Andrea commented.

"I miss my coffeemaker with that dual-drip filter and built-in grinder, honey," Jacqui closed her eyes, imagining everything she just said.

"I definitely miss my guitar," Kloe added, smiling to herself as she got the sudden happy memory, "My fingers don't feel right when I don't strum them against the strings."

"My computer..." Amy mumbled. "And texting."

"I miss my vibrator," The biggest smirk plastered across all of their faces as they slowly turned their heads to the woman beside Kloe; Andrea.

Simultaneously, they all began to break out into laughter. "Oh my God," Amy muttered, unable to hold back a giggle.

"Me too," Carol admitted. Everyone's laughs became louder. Kloe pinched her nostrils together to stop herself from laughing, but it unfortunately didn't work.

"What's so funny?" Ed questioned. Kloe looked over her shoulder again, he was making his way towards the women.

"Just swapping war stories, Ed," Andrea smiled, still having a large grin on her face until it all grew uncomfortably quiet.

The brunette girl glanced up at Ed, weirded out by his presence. She noticed Andrea did the same since the two shared a quick look.

"Problem, Ed?" Andrea snapped, obviously annoyed.

"Nothin' that concerns you," Ed retorted, causing Andrea to roll her eyes. "And you ought to be focused on your work. This ain't no comedy club," he scoffed.

Kloe's jaw dropped slightly in shock as she raised her eyebrows at the man. He'd always abused his wife and his own daughter, Carol and Sophia, it was plainly obvious from his attitude.

She noticed Shane and Carl's shouts vanished. Kloe turned her head into the direction they were and spotted Shane looking over at them from a distance.

"Ed, tell you what..." Andrea stood up and slowly stepped towards Ed. "You don't like how your laundry is done, you are welcome to pitch in and do it yourself. Here," she tossed a navy blue t-shirt over to the man, but immediately got it thrown back into her face, causing her to grunt.

Kloe swiftly stood up, having a gut feeling something was about to go down.

"Ain't my job, missy," Ed placed the cigarette back into his mouth.

"Andrea, don't," Amy warned, she also shot up from her seat and stood beside Kloe, watching the two carefully.

"What is your job, Ed?" Andrea inquired, taking a couple more steps. "Sitting on your ass smoking cigarettes?"

"Well, it sure as hell ain't listening to some uppity smart-mouthed bitch," The Schmidt girl felt her teeth grit together with anger. "Tell you what..." he motioned towards his wife, Carol. "Come on, let's go." Carol instantly got up, following her prick ass husband's orders.

"She isn't going anywhere with you," Kloe snarled at the man.

"Hey, don't you butt in. This is none of your damn business. Come on now. You heard me," he wiggled his index finger to signal Carol to go with him. But Andrea and Kloe weren't having any of his bullshit.

Andrea and Kloe turned around to face Carol, who had a few tears in her eyes.

"Andrea, Kloe, please," she begged. "It doesn't matter."

"Hey," Ed called out. "Don't think I won't knock you on your ass, both of you, just 'cause you're some college-educated cooze. All right?"

The blonde scoffed at the man in disbelief, while Kloe just shot him a death glare.

"Now, you come on now or you're gonna regret it later," the wicked man stared into his wife's eyes.

"So she can show up with fresh bruises later, Ed?" Jacqui hissed.

"Yeah, we've seen them," the brunette girl added, the urge to punch him across the face was very high.

He viciously chuckled, "Stay out of this. Now come on!" Kloe held the gray haired woman's forearm so she couldn't move as she stared at the ground with a single tear falling down her cheek. "You know what? This ain't none of y'all's business," he took a few steps closer to Kloe, noticing that she was holding onto his wife. "You don't want to keep prodding the bull here, okay? Now I'm done, come on!"

He gripped onto Carol's other arm and pulled her out of Kloe's grip. "Carol, no," she stated firmly.

"No, no," Andrea added.

"Carol, you don't have to," the younger blonde commented. Soon, all of the females were gripping onto the same arm Ed was pulling.

"You don't tell me what! I tell you what!" Ed brung his hand to Carol's cheek, causing her to whimper in pain. Everyone began to clamor, including Kloe who was enraged.

Amy took hold of Carol as Kloe harshly took two steps forward and clenched her fists. She immediately punched across the man's face, he grunted as his nose began to bleed.

"You son of a bitch..." he muttered. In an instant, Kloe felt the man's two hands grab onto her neck. She couldn't breathe. Never in her life she'd ever been choked before, she never knew what it felt like, but now she did, and it undoubtedly hurt. The man gritted his teeth as he tightened his grip around the girl's neck, slightly lifting her off the ground.

"Get off of her!" she heard Andrea and Jacqui yell as she tried to wriggle her way out of his grip, but he was holding her where she couldn't.

Unexpectedly, Ed got pulled back. It was Shane. He wrapped the back of Ed's shirt around his hand. The brunette who was getting strangled dropped down to the ground as she gasped for air. Jacqui knelt down beside her, rubbing her back comfortingly as she continued to gasp for air.

She lifted her dark brown eyes to see Shane dragging Ed away. "Ed..." Carol mumbled. Shane threw the man onto the floor, she already knew what was going to happen. Living in the same place as Shane for the last month and a half, she could tell he had an extremely bad temper.

"It's okay. It's okay," Amy comforted, but Carol began to let out sobs as Shane knelt down and forcefully punched the man across the face.

Ed grunted at every hit he got on the face, even from afar, the five women could see Ed's face was all bloodied up already. Shane continued to repeatedly whack the man across the face, at the point where it was too much.

"Shane, stop!" Andrea pleaded, Carol threw her hand to her mouth as tears began to fall out of her eyes.

"Shane!" Kloe yelled out after her. Everyone began to plead for Shane to stop, including Carol herself. Kloe didn't want Shane to stop, but she couldn't face seeing Carol like this. Even if he abused her, he was still her husband, and that had a meaning.

"Just stop!" Carol cried, but Shane ignored all of their pleads and proceeded to punch the man. "Stop it!"

"You put your hands on your wife, your little girl or anybody else in this camp one more time, I will not stop next time," Shane snarled as he wrapped his hand around Ed's beaten face. "Do you hear me? Do you hear me?!"

"Yes," Ed mumbled.

"I'll beat you to death, Ed," with that, Shane gave the man one final punch. Carol continued to cry at the sight of her husband, but Kloe didn't feel guilty for what Shane and herself did. It had to be, or Ed would've done the same to his own wife and daughter. Kloe would've gladly let herself get hurt than them.

Shane stood up from the man and briefly kicked him in the ribs. He took a few steps back, out of breath as Carol hurried over to her husband and cried.

"Ed, I'm sorry," she cried. "Oh, my God! Ed, I'm sorry."

Shane looked at the four of the other women, speechless to the looks the three others were giving him. Although, Kloe kept her face neutral, attempting to hide the wince in her face as she breathed in. He walked away, shaking Ed's blood away from his hand.

The two blonde sisters stepped forwards at Carol's cries, Jacqui still knelt down beside Kloe, rubbing her back.

"You okay, sweetheart?" she asked quietly. The brunette simply shook her head, she couldn't talk, it hurt too much. She felt Jacqui's hand gently place on her chin as she lifted it up. "Oh my God..." she mumbled.

As she breathed in, the biggest wheeze she had heard ever since she got an asthma attack when she was fourteen entered the girl's breath. Instinctively, she reached into her pocket for her reliever and shook it. She pressed it against her lips and pushed down the canister. The wheeze vanished, but she was still wary that an asthma attack could occur, but it was a low chance.

...

Kloe was sitting on a seat beside Lori, who had a damp cloth pressed against her sore neck. Jacqui had told Kloe there was a bright red mark and a few bruises across her neck where Ed held her tight. Andrea and Amy had stayed at the quarry while Jacqui, Carol and Kloe made their way back up. Reluctantly, Kloe had to help Ed back up to camp so he could rest in his tent.

Her face winced as Lori pressed the cloth a bit too hard. "Sorry, sweetie," she softly apologized.

"Don't be," Kloe's voice croaked as she shook her head lightly. She set her eyes on Carol, who was sitting a meter away from Lori and her. "I'm sorry, Carol," she lifted her head up, locking her eyes with Kloe's. "I didn't mean to put you through that. I wasn't thinking."

She slowly nodded her head and weakly smiled, "It's okay. Please don't apologize, you got yourself hurt," she mumbled.

The three women sat in silence for a while, unknowing on what to say. Kloe's eyes darted in every direction to think of what to say. "Are you worried about Rick?" Kloe finally asked.

Hesitantly, she nodded. "Yeah," she muttered. "You worried about Zayn?"

"Yeah, definitely," Kloe admitted. "But he has Glenn and everyone else with him. They're strong," she smiled at the raven haired woman, who had a small smirk form on her lips.

"What about Glenn?" Kloe quietly laughed at the woman, ever since she had arrived at camp, Lori, Andrea and Jacqui informed her that they could imagine Glenn and her being a couple. So, of course Lori was going to ask if Kloe was worrying about him.

She nodded her head, "Yeah."

"When are you two getting together?" Lori inquired, an even bigger grin than before. Kloe felt her cheeks burn up, never had she had thought Glenn and her would get together.

"Uh, I- I actually haven't thought of that," she giggled embarrassingly. "Besides, Glenn wouldn't like me anyway. Why would he want to date his best friend's sister?"

"Well, do you like him?" Lori questioned. "I keep seeing the way you two look at each other, and there is definitely something there. Trust me, it's young love." Kloe's heart skipped a beat at the word 'love'. She hadn't used that word for months, not even to her brother.

"I- uh- well-" Kloe had no thought on what to say. She didn't know if she liked Glenn or not, although she had realized that she'd begun to care a lot more for Glenn and his actions. But she didn't know if that was just being a good friend or because she had feelings. "I- I really don't know how to answer that."

Lori nodded her head, the smirk still stuck on her face as she proceeded to dab the cloth against her neck.

▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃

Words: 3954
- 24th November 2021

Hello everyone! Happy early Thanksgiving! I'm sorry this chapter was like a filler, but I have to go along with the story.

Thank you for reading!