The wounds Clementine and AJ bare are not from the walking dead, but from the living.
In a world where the dead roam the Earth in a greater number than the living, it is the ones who live that are at war.
Clementine crouches behind a tree, letting her gaze slowly peak from behind cover, before spotting the walker in the near distance. Running, she slams the knife into the walker's head, its blood splattering on her hands, and grunts as she pulls her knife out and lets the walker fall to the ground. Lips pursed, eyes alert, she looks around her field of vision, a ten year old boy behind the tree next to her. He emerges pointing his gun, frantically shifting his weight to search for any threat.
Clementine places her hand firmly on the gun, lowers his hand. "We're safe."
They reach a clearing in the woods.
"I was hoping to find someone here."
AJ's jaw is set tight. His eyebrows are pulled together and he lowers himself onto the ground, looking at his feet. "They're all dead."
"Don't say that," Clementine warns. "We need to go hunting. Get some food. You stay with me. We don't split up."
"We'll find more food if we split up."
"Well, you aren't the one calling the shots, and you're still too little," she tosses back at him. She knows why he's mad. They've for sure lost some people and they don't know who's left. But she's still got to teach him.
"Fine."
"No more talking."
They catch a rabbit that AJ shot and a squirrel that Clem shot and start back towards their clearing, carving into the corpses. Clem skins them while AJ gathers tinder and kindling and branches and begins building. He starts a small fire and Clem gathers around and cooks the dead animals. "Looks like we'll have a good meal. Good job, AJ."
"You did good, too."
"Nice job on the fire." She lifts her head and checks that they're still alone before going back to cooking. "We need to go scavenging for supplies. We lost almost everything in the fight."
"Didn't lose our guns," AJ says.
Clementine nods. "Good point. Literally."
He giggles and Clem lets a small smile spread across her face.
They're quiet as they eat, ravenous. Focused on only one thing in that moment. Filling their starving bellies.
...
"Get some sleep, buddy," Clem says softly as they settle down on the grass after Clem tells AJ a story.
"I don't want to sleep," he crosses his arms, but lies down anyway and turns on his side facing Clementine. "I don't want to have nightmares."
"I'm right here. If you have a nightmare, I'll wake you up."
He nods. Clem watches him for a moment until his eyes finally drift closed. She lies back next to him and she can feel her eyes threatening to close, but she's adept at keeping sleep away. She looks up at the clear sky, the stars out, and searches for the knife constellation.
She needs to sleep. Despite her resistance, opening her eyes every time they droop closed, she finds them gluing shut and staying shut. It is then like she is being pulled down through quicksand.
It grips hold of her and pulls her under. Her body is in a cold sweat.
She experiences the dream as if she is underwater, struggling to reach the top.
She turned her head and watched as a walker chomped into Aasim's face, tearing it off until he was unrecognizable. Louis screamed and threw himself on to Aasim, shoving off the walker, his scream of horror throbbing against Clem's eardrums. "Aasim!"
Louis.
Louis, no.
Don't die. Keep moving.
Brody. Marlon. Omar. Mitch.
Aasim.
Ghosts.
Clem set her jaw and froze for a moment, looking back at Louis, but she couldn't stop for long. The walkers closed in on Louis and the last they saw of Louis was him rearing back and putting a knife in the walker's head before he disappeared behind a pack of walkers. AJ was staring at Clem in shock, watching her for what to do. Fear settled in the pit of her stomach but she staggered along, she kept moving, hearing a soft growling behind her. Louis would find a way out. They'd been in worse situations. She forced herself to breathe steadily, taking in a slow breath. As many times as she had covered herself in walker guts to get through a herd, she couldn't get used to it. It never got easier, hearing the growling walkers in your ear and knowing that one wrong move and you were dead. She had to keep going for AJ. He lurched ahead slightly in front of her, concealed among the walkers.
Startling awake, Clementine hears growling and Violet slants over Clementine, trying to wake her.
Violet.
Violet's face appears underwater above her before Vi looks off in another direction and pulls herself to her feet.
"Clem. Walkers!" Her mouth is open, hair swinging from side to side as she looks back and forth.
Clem's eyes shoot open and she jumps to her feet, grabbing for her knife, awake now. Her blood is pumping and her eyes search for AJ. "AJ!" she screams. He is already up, gun in hand, pointing towards the small herd and shooting. They have no choice. The noise may draw more walkers. But they have no choice.
Violet swings her meat cleaver into a walker's brain as Clem digs her knife into the head of one approaching AJ. They look around, checking behind them. Four walkers stagger towards them. Clem attacks the first one but loses her footing, landing on the ground with the walker on top of her. She grunts, pressing furiously with all her adrenaline induced rage to keep the walker's head away from her. She rolls the walker off and stabs it in the temple, pulls her knife away, panting.
Her panic does not slow her down but fuels her to take down the next walker, her pulse pounding in her ears as it falls to the ground. AJ fires and shoots the last one right in the head and it drops to the ground, quiet finally wrapping around the field as the three look at each other and Clem rushes over to hug Violet.
"You're okay," Violet says.
"Yeah. We are." Clementine squeezes her eyes shut as they hug tightly. Violet wraps Clem in her arms and they kiss gently. "Did anyone else make it?"
Violet shakes her head, kisses Clem again before pulling away. "I don't know. I didn't see where Louis went. He escaped but the walkers followed close behind him. I've just been out wandering alone."
Clem nods, setting her hand on AJ's back. "Us too."
"Hey, buddy," Violet says to AJ.
"Hey." Violet walks over to hug AJ.
"Have you eaten?" Clementine asks. "We have some meat."
"Not since yesterday. I found an old shed north of here. Has some food. Not much. A blanket. I saw a few can of beans. I ate one. Some walkers came so I left."
"Without the food?" AJ cuts in.
"It was a lot of walkers."
"AJ and I ate good last night, right?" Clem turns to AJ. "We caught some animals. Come eat with us." She smiles.
They all sit down in a circle on the ground and quietly eat their small portion of meat, trying to savor it but finding themselves devouring each morsel until it's gone and their hungry stomachs ache, wanting more.
But they are used to this. They are used to the hunger.
"We should check out that shed. Clear it out," Clementine says.
"I don't know," Violet says. "That place could be filled with walkers by now."
"We can take them. Right, AJ?"
"Right."
Violet takes a breath. "Okay."
When they reach the shed, someone's already cleared them out.
They hesitate.
Clementine steps protectively in front of AJ. She grips the doorknob and throws open the door, aiming her gun. Violet has her meat cleaver and AJ has his own gun ready to fire.
A pregnant lady sits on the bed, digging into a can of beans.
"Shit," she curses, and her body recoils from them. She holds her hands up slowly, speaks calmly. "My name is Charlotte. Take the food. There's plenty for all of us."
"We don't want a fight," Clementine says. "We just want a place to stay the night."
"Well you're welcome to come back to my community. Probably better than this little shed? The food will run out. Just a few cans. As long as you don't tell anyone about this incident, I'll take you back to my place."
"Your place?"
"Yes. You guys got names?"
"Clementine."
"Violet."
"Are you armed?" Clem asks.
"I could be," the woman shoots back. She pulls out a pistol from behind her and sets it down on the floor. "I'm not lookin' for a fight either, Clementine. Just need to eat. Just like you. I'm four months pregnant. I'm weaker than I want to be. I'm hungry. My community's a nice place. We have strong walls, food, a doctor. We call ourselves Brighid."
Clementine lowers her gun. "Brighid? Why?"
"The name of the goddess means strength. We're a bit different than you might imagine, but if you can accept that, you can come back to our place. We practice witchcraft, nothing bad, no curses, just some protection spells; herbs; rituals. Like I said, nothing like you'd imagine."
"...That's... different," Clem offers. She turns towards the hardened boy, who stands with his lips pursed, gun lowered. "This is AJ. We've...been through a lot." Clem is looking at the woman strangely, but oddly enough, she doesn't not trust her.
"Yeah, I guess we all have."
"No offense, but every community I've been to has fallen apart. We're looking for our group. We were attacked by a herd. Covered ourselves in their guts. But we were attacked by humans first. Can you help us?"
Charlotte eyes Clementine's hand, looks at the missing third finger before looking back at Clem's face.
"What have you guys been through?"
"What has your group been through?" Clem challenges.
Charlotte and Clem stare each other down, neither one blinking. Charlotte is a muscular, strong, yet gentle, green eyed woman, maybe 30, pretty, with long auburn hair down to the middle of her back.
"We've been through a lot. We aren't new to this."
"And neither are we," Charlotte responds. "You're safe with us, Clementine. Let's go back and talk to my group. You'll receive a warm welcome."
Clem turns to Violet. "What do you think?"
"It's weird. I don't know...you think we should go?"
"Yeah... She seems okay. AJ?"
"I don't trust her." He stares at Charlotte.
Clementine sets her hand on AJ's shoulder and looks to the woman. I know, buddy. I know. "AJ, I think we should check this place out, okay? I'm right here with you. No one's splitting us up."
"You three will stay together. Don't worry," Charlotte reassures. "If you accept my offer, you'll have your own house. A bedroom, a fully stocked kitchen, a bathroom with running water."
Clementine and Violet look at each other before Clem says, "We'll meet your group."