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“Well shit,” Kenny deadpanned in a whisper as he looked down at the dozens of walkers crowding the street below. Despite it being almost December, the past few days had been warmer so they were wandering around without the cold slowing them down.
His teenage companion looked down and back to him with uncertainty, but he urged him forward to prevent any discouraged thoughts. They wouldn’t have to worry about the walkers anyway as long as they were careful and didn’t do anything stupid. Something he hoped Ben would avoid.
They continued across the rooftops and the store Kenny had been scavenging from for the past week came into view.
“Why did you want me to come with you?” he was asked abruptly.
Kenny kept moving without facing him, “Well, I figured with your help we could grab enough supplies to ditch this town and keep heading north.”
“But,… why me?”
The anxiety in Ben’s voice was obvious and his expression matched when Kenny turned to face him.
“Well first of all, you’ve been sittin’ at camp all the time and you need to be doing stuff like this,” he said calmly, “And second of all, I wanted to talk.”
Ben furrowed a brow, “Talk?”
“Yeah, but come on. Let’s get in there first,” Kenny said while pointing towards their destination.
It was a three-story brick building with a fire escape on its side. They reached the edge of the roof and there was an alleyway separating the buildings. Kenny then climbed down onto a balcony and readied himself to jump. Before he did, he turned back to Ben who hadn’t moved a muscle and had a look of pure dread across his face.
“No. No way man.”
Kenny sighed and shook his head, “Oh for Christ’s sake, Ben,” he said with a tired tone rather than irritated.
“But- You remember what happened last time.”
“Yeah, and I caught you,” Kenny said and he stepped up onto the railing. “This isn’t hard. I’ve hopped off this thing back and forth five times and haven’t heard a creak. Watch.”
Ben watched apprehensively as Kenny leaped across the gap to the fire escape effortlessly.
“Alright, your turn.”
Ben looked at him still unconvinced.
Kenny took a breath to stay composed, “I’ve hopped off that thing back and forth five times and haven’t heard a creak. “All you got to do is jump, it ain’t hard.”
Ben then looked down at the balcony for a moment, still with a look of worry but now with a hint of contemplation. He was almost there, now he just needed another push.
After a moment of deliberation, Ben hesitantly dropped down to the balcony and stepped up to the railing. Kenny gave him another look of encouragement and slowly he climbed up and readied himself to jump, trying not to look down.
Kenny glanced and saw they were losing daylight, this was taking too long. He was about to say something when Ben suddenly jumped across and landed right next to him with a stumble.
Kenny smirked, “Good leap, kid.”
Ben took it as sarcasm and shot him an annoyed look but saw that Kenny was being genuine. His expression softened and before he could blurt out an apology Kenny turned and led him into the building.
The building was a department store that sold hardware, clothes, and groceries which were on the first floor. Thankfully the front entrance was blocked and Kenny already cleared the building during his earlier runs.
They walked down to the first floor and loaded whatever edible canned food was left into their bags, which wasn’t much, and went up to the second floor to grab more winter clothing and baby clothes for Christa and Omid.
As they were scavenging, Ben started to feel anxious about what Kenny wanted to discuss with him. For the past month, he didn’t speak outside of small talk and kept to himself most of the time.
Not wanting to drive his nerves any further, Ben dropped his bag and walked over to where Kenny was looking through old coats.
“What did you want to talk about?” he asked, trying not to sound nervous.
Kenny paused and looked back to him, with a neutral look. His gaze drifted in thought for a moment, then he took a deep breath and stood up to face him.
“I wanted to set things straight. Between us,” he said softly. Ben stayed silent, not knowing whether to feel calm or more nervous.
“We haven’t really talked since Savannah and… I said some things that weren’t right, and I want to apologize for that.”
Ben’s eyes widened a little in disbelief. Ne never thought Kenny would be the one apologizing to him, especially not after getting his family killed along with his other screw-ups.
“I’m sorry for what I said, how I treated you, and I’m sorry about your family,” Kenny said solemnly.
“Thanks.” Ben replied, still slightly shocked at what he was hearing, “I still think about them, sometimes.”
“Think they might still be out there?”
Ben frowned, “Not really, I mean, after what Clem said about her parents, I’m not feeling hopeful about it.”
Kenny stayed silent, only giving a sympathetic nod. Even though they were now gone, he didn’t have to deal with the pain of not being with his family when the world went to shit.
“Well, I just wanted to let you know that and get it off my chest,” Kenny said and reached for his bag, “We’ve got to have each other’s backs and I don’t want anything to happen to you. So, whatever’s happened before, I want to move on from it.”
As Kenny was gathering his supplies, Ben processed Kenny’s words and a thought came to mind, “Wait, are you saying… you forgive me?”
Kenny stopped and turned to him with a seemingly angry look, and Ben immediately started stuttering out words to find an apology.
“I-I’m sorry. I made a mistake and-”
“We’ve both made mistakes,” Kenny interrupted firmly, but with no malice behind it.
It was enough to catch Ben off guard and they both stared at each other in silence. Kenny looked down and pinched the bridge of his nose, trying to keep his temper. Snapping at the kid was the last thing he wanted to do right now.
“Truth is…,” he paused, trying to find his words, “I don’t know, but I don’t hate you and I don’t want to be reminded of it every time we’re around each other.”
Ben stayed silent as he spoke, both relieved he wasn’t being chewed out and somewhat thankful for Kenny’s honesty.
Kenny continued, “Look, everything we’ve been through, everything we’ve done, it’s all in the past. We got a little girl to look after and theirs a baby on the way. They’re all that matters right now, and we gotta be there for them and look out for each other.”
“It’s what Lee would’ve wanted,” he added quietly to himself. If Ben heard it, he didn’t comment on it.
“Think we can do that?" Kenny said and outstretched his hand. Ben looked at it for a moment before grabbing it and accepting the handshake.
It was a step in the right direction. For both their sakes.