Your Hand in Mine

by zombiedog001

There were no words to offer, nothing that could've been said in this kind of situation- and there would never be anything that could be said to try and comfort a wound that would, without a doubt, never heal.

"Do you think she's going to be pissed?"

The odd question finally broke the less than needed silence that had suffocated the thin fields around them. She had been worried about how quiet he had been since they escaped the city. He was never one for complete silence and if he couldn't talk, he had to break the air with a loud sigh or the occasional grunt. Whatever kind of noise he could make, he would for the sheer fact that the quiet freaked him out. Of course, he quickly became friends with silence in these last few months- but even if they were hiding in the shadows, trying to remain unnoticed by Walkers, he still had to say something.

So when he remained speechless through these last few hours... it worried her.

But at least he broke that facade now.

Sighing, she gave a light shake of her head and continued to stare at her interlocked hands in front of her. Lee had told them to leave the city and make it back to the train before he disappeared into the crowded street. They tried to keep to that order but... she just didn't feel comfortable with it. Remaining in the city was a bad idea and with no one else to operate the train, it was essentially useless; not to mention, an obscene number of Walkers still remained dwelling around it. So, without much arguing, they took a different path and tried to get as far away as they could.

This was the first time they had found a moment to rest in probably two or three hours. The fields around them offered enough visibility that they could see anything around them for miles it seemed like; giving them a good chance at avoiding anymore Walkers for now. It also gave them some security when Omid made the excellent choice of picking a fallen log to rest on. She sat one way and he sat the other so they had all directions covered, but so far... nothing. Not even a bird.

She wanted to find it comforting, but after all they had experienced from this day alone... it didn't feel right.

"She's going to go through a lot of emotions but... I don't think anger is going to be the first one. There will be time for that to come along later and... we'll deal with it when it comes."

He gave a long sigh in response before he leaned back, fitting his hands against the loose bark underneath while he tried to stretch his leg out as best he could. An audible pop emerged from his injured leg and while she thought it was a bit disgusting, he seemed almost relieved by the release of pressure.

"I was talking about the cat."

The sudden change of the conversation was surprising but she wasn't all that caught off-guard by it. He was, by nature, a rather outgoing person; his cheery attitude rarely ever changed regardless of the situation. Even with this whole... Walker situation, he still tried to find the brighter side or tried to keep everyone's spirits up- which was a hit or miss in some cases.

But with all the damage from this morning, it had wounded him to the point of giving up on that... he just needed a break in the conversation; he needed to give himself something else to think on.

She managed a rather weak chuckle before she moved one hand to rest on top of his, lightly entangling their fingers together. "Yeah... she's probably torn apart the entire house by now. Just to spite you."

"Knowing her, she's probably taken the last plane out to Aruba." he remarked with an empty scoff. "But still found time to throw up in my shoes somewhere along the way."

Again, she tried to laugh for him. "Just remember, you wanted to take this great American road trip but didn't want to take her along."

"Oh please, could you imagine her in the car? She'd want the air on and then off and then on again. And she'd probably change all the radio stations and she would need more bathroom breaks than you do."

"Don't push your luck."

Giving a shake of his head, Omid moved to push his fingers through his hair and briefly cupped the back of his neck. "So... what do we do? Do we just wait here and hope that maybe she'll find us? What if she goes the other way? What if she runs into trouble along the way? What if she doesn't want to see us? Maybe we're the wrong people to be looking after her."

"Don't say that." she objected lightly. "Lee wanted us to take care of her and that's what we're going to do."

"But I'm not even half the man Lee is... was." he noted, slow to correct himself. "You're more of a man like him than I am."

"I'll take that as a compliment." Christa remarked, watching as he seemed to frown briefly at the realization of his comment but decided not defend or correct himself on it. Damage control was never his strong point. Sighing, she moved to turn herself towards him and, possibly for the first time, noticed just how physically and mentally exhausted he seemed. His five o'clock shadow had set in a bit more but did little to hide the added lines around his face. "We need to do this. We have to do this... no objections."

"But then what?"

She cringed on the inside at the loss of an answer for him but tried not to let it show on the outside. "Let's just find her first and then we'll go from there."

He seemed to stare at her for several long minutes before a light nod finally came forth. He turned away for a moment but seemed more intrigued in the field around them, giving the empty trails another look over. "Alright. Well... where do we start then? Because we got ourselves lost in the middle of nowhere and I can't remember where the city was now."

Sighing, she shrugged lightly. "Well... anywhere is a good place to start."

"It's something." he shrugged in response before he moved to push himself to his feet; struggling briefly to get his weight balanced before he stood up. He turned back around and offered a hand to her, which she accepted. "Don't you have some kind of inner GPS that can point us to the nearest store? Maybe we can make our way back to the city that way."

The slight glare she shot at him immediately shut him up though.

Brushing her hands off on her pants, she looked around at the still field around them and suddenly felt almost... swallowed by the open space. This was the kind of environment she wanted, but until they found Clementine, it was less than comforting right now.

They simply picked a direction and moved to walk down the dirt path but they didn't get more than a few steps before she felt something bounce against her leg. Pausing briefly, she looked down in time to see a rock roll a few times before it came at a stopping point- hinting that it had been the item thrown. Omid continued moving ahead a few more paces before he stopped when he noticed she was no longer beside him.

"Something wrong?"

Christa frowned slightly as she continued to stare at the rock before she looked up to the short pasture in front of them. "Someone threw a rock at me." her voice was so low she wasn't even sure if she had heard it herself.

"Rude." Omid scoffed lightly as he moved back to her before he set his sights on the pasture just the same. "Is someone out there?"

He had asked that question loud enough for her but she wondered if he was trying to call out into the pasture just the same. She certainly knew a Walker couldn't have thrown it, not to mention there wasn't one around them anyways, and it didn't fall from the sky either; its destiny was not to fall from the sky and hit her in the leg. Which meant... someone else had to have been out there. But why didn't they just call out instead?

Unless...

"Clementine?" she questioned before she stepped towards the slightly broken fence surrounding the pasture. "Clementine, is that you?"

It took a few seconds before she watched some of the pale-yellow grass shift before it was pulled down just enough to reveal the very girl they had started to look for. Her dirty-white ballcap was settled on her head once more... which had to mean...

"I... I didn't know if it was you or not." she started, her voice shaking slightly with the words before she pushed herself through the rest of the tall grass. "I just wanted to make sure. Sorry if I hit you."

"Don't worry, Christa's gone to plenty of Black Friday events, she knows how to take a hit." Omid replied as he moved towards the fence and helped the girl climb over the damaged portion of it. "Wasn't there a movie that said to stay out of the tall grass?"

She shot him a brief look that said now wasn't the time before she looked back to the girl. The front of her dress was absolutely covered and smeared with blood, coating the thin material in the disgusting scent of the undead. She felt her stomach cringe at the smell but tried not to focus on it... after all, she didn't want to know why it was there in the first place.

Her eyes were drawn to the faint splatter of blood across her face that she had yet to wipe away- as though afraid to touch it overall.

If she was here by herself then...

Well, they couldn't say that they were surprised. He had prepared himself for it; he was so determined to die to get her back and in the end... it seemed like he did just that.

Still, despite having braced herself for the impact, the cold realization of it made her hurt.

"Lee... Lee didn't..." Clementine started, only to stop herself again and again; her voice giving out each time, sometimes before she even started. A gun was shaking in both hands but she refused to let it go and... she didn't want to question why. She had a good feeling she already knew.

Omid nodded lightly as he knelt down in front of her; resting one hand on her shoulder. "We know."

Her lips twisted into a frown as she continued to try and restrain her emotions. Her thin frame was shaking underneath the amount of control she needed to keep from breaking down. "And my parents... they didn't either..."

Oh God.

She had been so adamant about finding her parents, knowing well they were still somewhere in Savannah. And while Lee had admitted to her that he didn't believe that her parents were alive, in fact borderline knew that they weren't... he still did the best he could to keep with the promise to look for them.

It was just another door closed for them.

At least Clementine knew though, at least she had that sense of closure.

One hand moved to run across her eyes and she felt herself nearly collapsing on the inside. Her throat tightened and for a moment, it felt like she was suffocating on just the stale air around them.

Sniffling, Clementine took a deep breath to try and calm herself once more before she looked to them; this time glancing around as though looking for something else. Or... someone else. "Where's... where's Kenny and Ben?"

Of course... she didn't know. Lee wouldn't have told her either.

Taking a deep breath herself, Christa moved to cross her arms tightly over her aching chest and gave a light shake of her head. "No, they didn't... they didn't make it."

"Ben took a nasty fall off a roof and Kenny tried to save him but... they just... no." Omid added.

As if the loss of Lee and her parents wasn't enough for her... she had to suffer the loss of the rest of her party as well.

"I... I'm the only one left."

"No, you still have us." Christa assured as she stepped towards her, moving to rest a hand on her shoulder. "And we're not going to let you go."

Again, she rubbed at her eyes in an attempt to dispel the eager tears that gathered in her eyes. "I'm the only one from Atlanta left... everyone's gone." she continued. "Doug, Glenn, Mark, Larry... Carley, Lily, Duck, Katjaa and now Lee, Kenny and Ben... it's just me now."

Without hesitation, Omid moved to pull her in against him; disregarding the blood that covered her and was no doubt smearing itself onto his jacket just the same. He didn't say anything and instead kept his grip tight around her as she collapsed into his arms.

"I'm so sorry."

She wasn't even aware of the tears that were making their way down her cheeks as she moved to kneel down beside them; placing her hand against her frail shoulder once more. There were no words to offer, nothing that could've been said in this kind of situation- and there would never be anything that could be said to try and comfort a wound that would, without a doubt, never heal.

"Your hand in mine, Clementine... your hand in mine."