Alone
The smell of decay weighs heavily in the air, filling lungs with its foul stench with every breath. Groans of hunger can be heard from every corner of the city. Walking corpses roam the streets searching for their next meal while others wander aimlessly. Few humans survive the dead's strong grip and everlasting hunger to tell the story of their survival the next day. Clementine plans to be one. The small child holds onto the heavy pistol that she had retrieved from a dead security guard with a firm grip, despite her constant shaking. Tears flowing down her bloodied cheeks, she continues to the door her father had instructed her to take before his demise.
She lost track of the time after she broke down from having to shoot the only person who she trusted to prevent him from becoming one of the walkers. She did not dare peek over her shoulder at the two bodies covered in glass and blood. Clementine turns the knob slowly, shivering from the cold of the room, and she nudges the door slightly. Sunlight filters through the crack as Clementine blinks, allowing her eyes adjust to the sudden light change. Not a single sign of danger, yet the small girl nudges the door further cautiously. Clementine heaves the heavy door and rushes out into the empty alleyway; she briskly turns to catch the door before it could make a sound. She shuts the door gently before search for a way up. The alleyway seems to empty of life, abandoned. Weeds wheedle out of cracks in the pavement, and large masses of moss drape over the sides of some buildings. Windows that can be seen are either boarded up or broken; the ladders on the buildings leading up are worn with rust to the point none seem to be safe to use. However, that did not stop Clementine from trying to climb one.
Being cautious of broken glass, she walks towards a ladder that is the closest to her. Small hands wrap around a rung on the ladder and pull on it to test the ladder's strength. A loud creaking of metal breaks the silence that had inhabited the alleyway and collapses onto the ground, causing a loud ruckus. Clementine freezes in fear when she realizes what had occurred. Groans and growls of hungry from the distance seem to be closer now. A walker appears at one end of the alleyway. Flesh and rags of a suit hang off his outstretched arms, bone visible in some parts of the man's decaying body. The walker had no bottom jaw, so his tongue dangles from the back of his throat, only making a gurgling sound. Clementine's eyes widen slightly as she shrinks back from the figure, heart pounding in her throat. More figures appear from end of the alleyway, stumbling along after the first. At first, the first walker did not notice her as his cloudy eyes wander, searching for what they could not see. Clementine forgotten about the bloody mess Lee, the man she grew to trust as a friend and caretaker for her, smudged on her dress to hide her scent from the walkers' sensitive smell. The thought of Lee brings Clementine back to her senses, but terror keeps a firm grip on her as more walkers stumble into the alleyway. She quickly searches for an escape and bolts down a narrow alleyway. Adrenaline rushes throughout her body as she runs through alleyway after alleyway, while keeping herself aware of walkers.
She lost track of where she was at after running through so many alleyways, avoiding the main streets as much as possible. Heart pounding and ragged breath slows Clementine down to a jog; the adrenaline from earlier is gone now. She comes to a halt and examines her surroundings, losing whatever hope she held onto before as she realizes she is a similar alleyway as the one before. Weeds dominate the corners and cracks with shadows creeping in corners. The buildings remain still; devoid of life with blacken windows. The hair on the back of Clementine's rises as the silence of the alleyway wraps itself around her; however, she keeps pushing forward despite the constant reminder and fear that she is all alone. At the end of the alleyway, tree branches reach out towards the buildings, almost beckoning Clementine to come closer to them. Her hopes rise a smidge when she sees the end of the city and a beginning of a forest, but the hopes quickly dash away when she sees how shadows creeping in every corner of the forest. Her mind creates scenarios of a walker grabbing her in its death hold. She shivers at the thought and scolds herself for imagining such things. Clementine advances into the forest with caution; branches from the bushes snag her dress. The fallen leaves crunch underneath her shoes as twigs snap loudly in her ears. She can feel her heart in her throat by this point, beating furiously as her eyes wander over the twisting branches and roots of the tall, menacing trees. The corners of the forest grow darker with every step as the sun slowly sets in the distance. Her whole body wavers whenever a noise from a distance breaks the silence that had embedded itself into the forest. Groans rise and fade away as she continues on forward, causing her to grip the gun more firmly as a comfort.
The forest ends suddenly and opens up to a wide-open field of gold; Clementine halts for a moment with a gasp. The open world seems so much bigger now that Lee is no longer by her side. She walks down the slope that opens up the field, stumbling a little as she goes down. The small girl continues to walk in the field until she comes upon a small clearing with a log lying in the center of it. A weeping willow overhangs the clearing, creating a pleasant setting. Clementine slowly walks towards the log and settles down her tired body onto it. The cool, smooth surface of the wood soothes her aching body. Something shining in the sun catches Clementine's eye suddenly; she reaches down for it. Gun shells, cold and deadly, sits by her feet as she picks one. It settles in her hand as she examines it - shotgun shells, completely useless to her. She sighs and drops the shotgun shell to the ground; her eyes lower to the ground in grief. Her eyes shot up when she notices two figures in the distance, and the figures seem to have stopped. Fear grips her body again as she slowly stands up, never taking her eyes off the two figures. She squints her eyes at the glaring sun, trying to see the figures clearer. The game ends abruptly, and the credits start to roll.