I don't think I've seen a Walking Dead fanfic featuring Kenny, Jane, and Clementine together as their own little group. :/ I'm probably one of the few people writing them attempting to raise her together. It's usually Jane and Clementine or Kenny and Clementine. To me, I think the 3 of them surviving together with a baby would be interesting. Jane's like the big sister and Kenny's the uncle. As for Luke, no he's not the husband. Fuck no. He's the big brother. I don't even know why I brought up Luke. He's still dead.
Anyways, this is another route without the whole Kenny vs Jane bullshit. Speaking of which, I'm surprised nobody has pointed out that Kenny has a female foe in both seasons of TWD. The only difference is that Lilly and Kenny were constantly fighting and Kenny and Jane only had it out for each other in one episode.
Clementine groaned as she began waking up from being unconscious from her gunshot wound. It still hurt like heck. Now that she thought about it, it was lucky she had lived from being shot. As she sat up, she realized she was inside of the truck Kenny had been fixing up and Kenny and Jane were in the front seat with Kenny driving.
"Watch out for the walker!" exclaimed Jane.
"I see it," he swerved the truck out of the way.
"Kenny? Jane?" Clementine sat completely up as she placed a hand on her bullet wound.
"Clementine, are you okay?" asked Kenny taking a quick look back at Clementine before turning his attention back to the road.
"It still hurts."
"The bullet went straight through, so we didn't have to dig it out," said Jane.
"What happened after Arvo shot me?" she was curious about what happened next. The last thing she remembered was Mike squatted over her with a worried look on his face with Bonnie ushering him to run. Then it sounded like Kenny had chased them off or maybe he…
"Those fuckers got away that's what happened," growled the man. "That little fucker, I knew he was up to no good. This ain't somethin' I expected out of Bonnie and Mike. They took everything!"
Clementine frowned. The three of them had doomed them without food. They would have to get whatever they could on the road somewhere. She couldn't help but to strongly dislike the trio though she had the feeling at least two of them did regret anything. Arvo hated Kenny and her already and Bonnie pinned the blame of Luke's death on her and showed no remorse about her being shot or stealing from them. Mike looked like he felt sorry for her, but he still went with him. To think she was starting to warm up to Bonnie after what she did.
"Is the baby okay?" she asked. At least they hadn't stolen him too. Then again, why would they? The group had expressed concern about themselves as the baby would be hard on everyone. The only person who hadn't complained was Kenny which made sense given how instantly attached he was to the baby.
"He's fine," said Jane. "He fell asleep."
"We need baby formula and to get him out of the weather," said Kenny. "I say we head to Wellington. There's our best bet."
"Are you serious?" Jane scoffed. "You're going after some rumor?"
"It's better than nothin'!" exclaimed Kenny, a look of determination on his face.
"I say we head back to the hardware store," said Jane.
"Why?" asked Clementine. She couldn't help but to think it was a bad idea. For all they knew, the workers there wouldn't let them in. "Wouldn't someone who worked for Carver still be there?"
"With Carver dead and that herd, it probably got overrun," she pointed out. "I remember seeing baby formula there and we could use it for the kid."
"We could try," Clementine said.
"For all we know, someone else has taken over," pointed out the man.
"We could try," she repeated. "The baby hasn't eaten yet and we can make it to the store faster in a vehicle than on foot. Maybe try seeing if anybody's left. If not, we can always try Wellington."
Kenny seemed to mull this over in silence for a moment before speaking. "Fine, we'll head that way, but after that we'll going to Wellington."
Kenny turned around the truck and headed back in the direction of the hardware store. The rest of the ride was spent mostly in complete silence with Jane and Kenny making sure Clementine was doing alright in the back seat. Clementine just hopped the truck would be able to make it there. If not, they'd have to go on foot which wasn't entirely safe. They were already lucky enough the baby had made it in this incredibly cold weather and that they themselves didn't have pneumonia. This made the child happy that the hot air in the car was working properly. Within a few hours, they had made it back to the store. Kenny slowly eased up to the parking look, peering around for any sort of sign of human life. Nobody was patrolling the roofs as usual or outside cleaning up the walker mess. It looked deserted, but there was no way of being completely sure about it. Anybody could be lurking inside of there.
"It looks empty," commented Clementine.
"Yeah it looks empty, but that's no way to be sure," said Kenny. "Jane, you head in there and make sure its abandoned for sure. I'll stay here with the baby."
"I'll head inside too," said Clementine.
"Are you sure you're up to it?"
"Yeah, it doesn't hurt too badly," she said touching her wound again.
"Okay, be careful. As soon as you're done, sign me over and I head over with AJ."
Clementine nodded at the man and headed over to the camp with Jane. As soon as they were far enough, Jane spoke up. "I'm surprised he agreed to come here. I would have thought he'd keep going."
"Kenny really cares about the baby," she replied. The second that baby was born, Clementine could tell Kenny loved that baby. He rarely ever put him down and proved to be a heck of a lot better than Carver for a caretaker. "If he didn't care, he'd probably keep going."
"You know Clementine, you don't have to go with him if he still leaves," she pointed out. "You could stay here with me. This place is right in front of us and we should be taking advantage of it if nobody's here."
"But what if it is real?" If it was real, that was where Christa was headed. She could be there. Even though their relationship had become strained after Omid's death more so on Christa's end, she still cared about Christa regardless of how the older female felt. If she was there, Clementine wanted to see her again. "My friend might be there."
"What if she isn't?"
"Then it could be a lot safer than being with three people and a baby defending a hardware store."
"It's a hell of a lot better than going after something we don't know if it's real or not," Jane rolled her eyes. Both Clementine and Kenny were set on going which worried her. She had to find a way to get her to stay. Kenny raised a lot of red flags in her head and she'd hate it if Kenny snapped and hurt her. The other part of her kept telling her that Clementine was a smart kid. She could make her own decisions. However, Clementine proved to be fiercely loyal to members of her group or at least the former members of her group. Besides, she had known Kenny for a long time. It'd be hard for her to abandon him.
"It's worth a try," she countered stubbornly. "If you want to stay here, it's fine. I won't force you to come with us if you don't want to. I know that you think the baby is going to be hard on us, but I think Kenny knows what he's doing. He's my friend and I won't leave him."
"I know that, but do you really think it's a good idea? The way he snapped on you before…"
"He was really sad. When you're sad, people do and say things they don't mean. Kenny didn't mean it. He apologized for it. He's lost too many people he's cared about and it's getting to him. I'm worried about him."
Jane was worried too. It was like walking on egg shells around that man. If he didn't cool down soon, he'd snap and hurt one of them. She had seen it when Kenny yelled at the girl. He looked as if he was about to slap her, but he didn't. If he did, he was sure he'd regret it as she could see he cared about that girl even if he was losing his mind. She just hoped Clementine knew what she was doing.
When they arrived inside, they peered around inside and found most of the items gone though not all of it. The place had been completely abandoned by the former inhabitants much to Jane's relief. There were a few walkers still around, but they were quickly dealt with. Jane couldn't help but to notice a few of them looked just like the workers that lived there. Without Carver alive, they must have panicked and got bitten. Speaking of which, the man's corpse was still laying on the ground with most of his insides missing, no doubt from a few walkers finding their next effect free meal. The greenhouse was still around and full of food. As for in the back room, there was enough baby formula around for the baby.
"There's so much left," Clementine said in awe as she picked up a over turned box full of packages of food and cans.
"They probably couldn't get all of it up at the time," said Jane. "This should last us a long time if we ration it right. Why don't you go get Kenny, so we can show him what's left?"
Clementine made her way back to the truck and when she was close enough for him to see her, she waved him over and then headed back inside. Like Jane, Kenny was pleased with what was left. "This is exactly what we need." He said as he picked up a can of baby formula.
"Told you this place was worth coming back to," said Jane as she started pulling Carver's body out of the room. "We have everything we need here."
"Except more people to help defend this place." When Carver was alive, there were a lot more people working the place to help with repairs. While there was no doubt in his mind the three of them could protect themselves and the baby, there was no way all three of them could guard the building and at the moment, he wasn't looking forward to meeting any strangers. AJ began to loudly whine which caused Kenny to start shushing him.
"Clem, do you see any bottles of water? He's starvin'," he said as he rocked the newborn. She searched among the shelves before finding one. Kenny quickly set to work making the formula while Jane went outside. Once the bottle was prepared, AJ quickly gulped down the milk as soon as it hit his tongue. A day or so without formula and he'd be dead so it was fortunate they had found what they needed.
"Normally you're supposed to warm this shit up, but I think he'll be fine," shrugged Kenny. "You do with what you have."
"I don't think he minds," she smiled as she noticed the baby's bottle was just about empty. "He's eating pretty fast."
"I'd be worried if he wasn't. He hasn't had anything since forever ago. If the cold didn't get him, starvation would."
"Speaking of the cold, do you think we could stay here? With how cold it is out there, isn't it dangerous to be searching for it with AJ? We could stay here until it gets warmer and then look."
"I don't know," he looked over at the door where Jane had gone. Kenny didn't know if that was a good idea considering who they were with. Jane was a loner and didn't come off as the type who'd want to help look after a baby. She could up and leave like she did before. "Can we trust her to stay?"
"If she didn't want to stay, she would've wanted out in the truck," she pointed out.
"I guess you're right. I'll think about it. In the meantime, see if you can find anything damaged. I wouldn't want any of those things getting in here while we're sleeping."
Clementine left Kenny be and went to go look for Jane. The brunette was still pulling dead walkers out of the building when she spotted Clementine. "Hey, kid. Come help me. The faster we get rid of these things, the sooner we don't have to see or smell them. Make sure you check their pockets."
"Should we burn them?" She asked as she began checking one of the walker's pockets only to find nothing in them.
"Burn them? Did your group do that?"
"That's what we did when all this started," she shrugged. "When my first group was clearing out walkers from the motor inn, they piled them up and burned them."
"Where there a lot?"
"A ton," she remembered seeing a woman laying on the pile, looking very much different than the others. She wasn't a rotting corpse like the others. She couldn't help but to wonder if she had been bitten and had been put down.
"Let's not. It might attract unwanted attention." Although she didn't voice it, it was possible a large fire could attract the former workers who might want revenge for their fallen leader. That or trouble they didn't want.
"You're right," she hadn't thought about that. The two began dragging the bodies out one by one in silence before Jane spoke up again.
"So your friend that you mentioned earlier, what was her name? Christa? What happened to her?"
"We got separated. There were these three guys trying to rob us. I got away, but I don't know what happened to her. Last time I saw her, one of the guys stabbed her in the leg after they saw me. I met one of the guys after meeting the others, but he couldn't tell me anything."
"Couldn't or didn't want to?"
"Couldn't. He was dying from a gunshot wound I think," she shrugged. She had been hoping by giving him water, he'd be able to tell her if she had died or had gotten away. However even with those few gulps of water, he wasn't able to tell her. She probably have known had those walkers never ambushed her. "I wonder where she is right now."
"For your sake, I hope she's okay."
"I hope so too," she sighed. Where ever Christa was, she hoped she was thinking about her too.
And that's it for now. I find it very hard to believe nobody would still be around at the hardware store. The group has been gone for a total 4-7 days. Some people had to think about staying there.
I really wish there was a choice to have Clementine have both Jane and Kenny. Then again it still wouldn't make much of a difference because SPOILER
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(Jane commits suicide within a few weeks of being with Clementine as she finds out she's pregnant. I'm pretty sure even with Kenny and his knowledge of childbirth, she'd still kill herself. She did say she didn't want to bring a child into the world with the way things were.)
