Drip… Drip…. Drip…. Drip….. Drip….. Drip….. Drip…

He watched as the droplets of blood fell off the end of his nose, and land on the table to join the dark red puddle that had already formed there. He was sure he could stop the flow if he wanted to, by either blowing some air against it or wiping his face against the table or just doing something, but since the blood was the only thing that he was able to use to be able to tell any sort of time between his captors' visits, he let the blood drip.

From the amount that had flowed from the cut on his forehead, he figured it had only been about half an hour since his captors had decided to visit him. The swelling of his cheek was annoying, the bruises on his ribs made it painful to breathe, forcing him to take shallow breaths, and his left hand still ached, but it was taste of blood in his mouth from where he had accidently bit his own tongue from the last time, that bothered him the most. Sometimes, his captors would give him a sip of water after they roughed him up, but this was not one of those time.

The only other thing that was constant in the room was the old florescent light hanging over his head that seemed as if it couldn't decide between life and death, resulting in it flickering all the time. When he was first put there, days ago, Alex had hoped the light would fail, so that his captors would be forced to leave the large door at the end of the rectangular room open, letting in more light and actually letting him be able to tell what time it was, whether it was night, day, dusk, afternoon… something. However, all his hoping was for naught, as the light continued to taunt him with its flickering.

He attempted to shift in the chair, as he tried to whenever he felt his butt starting to go numb or his arms felt as if they were on fire, but it never seemed to do much good; Other than making the rope around his wrists and the ankles to chafe and dig into his skin, he found it was better to just sit still, and wait. And how he hated it.

The constant waiting. The continual, constant waiting for someone to throw open the large door, just so Alex could get a glimpse of what the time was outside, and get a brief cool breeze on his face, before it would be slammed shut behind the person, and the interrogation would begin.

"Where are they? Where did you last see them? Who was with them? What weapons were they carrying? How many supplies did they have? Where are they heading?"

Whenever the asking questions would fail, as they inevitably did, his captors would usually turn to violence, often followed by threats.

"If you think that was bad, wait until the boss gets here. Then, you will really wish you had told us what we wanted to know."

Occasionally, he had gotten someone who had actually tried reasoning with him. It was a nice change of pace, even if it was going to fail like the others.

"We know you were with them, so just tell us what we want to know, and we will let you go. We just want our people back, that's all. We are just trying to protect them."

Only once in the span of his captivity had he come close to revealing everything that he knew…even if he did know nothing about the people his captors kept asking about. It was pain that he had never felt before and hoped he would never feel again.

As he sat there, watching the drops fall and waiting for when his captors next deemed it appropriate to come visit him, he felt his thoughts turn towards his friends and it was like opening a scrapbook. Memories came flooding through his mind…the good ones, the bad ones, the ones of them just all…surviving. It was then he realized how alone he was. He had only one person, one good person left in his life, and he had no idea where she was. He just hoped she was alright…

His head shot up as he heard the door be thrown up, and squinted as bright, brilliant sunlight streamed into the room, blinding him momentarily. As his eyes attempted to adjust, he put the time as somewhere after midday, so he figured that not much time had passed since he last had a 'visitor,' but it did surprise him; he normally would expect to see someone every few hours, either to check to make sure he was still alive, to ask him more pointless questions, or, even less often than the others, actually attempt to keep him alive, but only about half an hour…

He thought of a snarky comment to shout out, something about how they needed to air out the room, because to be fair, it was pretty ripe; they only left a bucket for him to use, and since he could only use it when they felt as if he had been sitting long enough, (which wasn't often,) it was often filled and left until a captor couldn't stand the smell.

As he opened his mouth to speak his mind, he immediately shut it as he saw the silhouette of the man standing in the doorway. From the way light reflected off his greasy dark brown hair, and went around the fur coat that he seemed to always be wearing, he knew immediately who this man was… and he was scared.

Bill fucking Carver.

He gritted his teeth as Carver strolled over, as if going to interrogate a prisoner was the most normal thing in the world. He felt his breath quicken as the man got closer, as the memory of what he did to him came back, but forced it down, not wanting to give him the satisfaction of seeing that just his presence was causing a reaction. Carver walked until he was across the table from him and stood there, staring at him.

"Well, we meet again. I had hoped after the last I was here, you would have come to your senses and realized it would have been better to tell my people what you know, but I see you are remainin' stubbornly silent."

He just glared at the man, knowing from past experience that no matter what he had said, no matter how many times he had told him that he knew nothing, the man seemed inclined to believe that he was hiding something.

"I tried to help ya. I gave you ample opportunities to tell me where the rest of my group is, but you refused my kindness, and I can't allow that. Troy, would you get in here?"

His blood ran cold at the sound of Troy's name. The man was well-known to him; out of all of his captors who came to interrogate him, Troy was the only that didn't give a shit if he answered the questions or not. The only thing the man seemed to enjoy was inflicting pain, and lots of it. However, it was nothing too serious, other than some bruises and a cut here or there, but when Carver was there, directing where Troy should hurt him, that was when Troy was able to do damage… serious damage.

He felt his heart speed up until he was sure that Carver would be able to hear from across the table as he watched Troy slowly enter the room, dragging something on the ground behind him. While he was certain of what it was, it wasn't until Troy stood next to Carver and tossed it on the table that he let out an involuntary gasp.

The hedge clippers lay there on the table, the blades in the puddle of blood, and he felt himself begin to shake. It had hurt so much last time, he wasn't sure if he could take it this time. His left hand began to ache even more, and he instinctively closed it into a fist, and felt the lack of his pinky finger.

"Since your little finger no longer a viable option, and we don't want to ruin your good dominant hand, we'll just have to move on to your next finger. I hope you weren't plannin' on wearin' a ring anytime soon."

Alex Reed took a deep breathe, trying to bring his emotions under control before glaring at Carver, hoping the man saw the deep seeded hatred he had for him.

"Let's just get this over with."

Carver smiled, his twisted smile. "With pleasure."

2 weeks earlier

"Come on, Clem, I want to find some shelter before this storm hits." Alex called back as he glanced up at the darkening sky, and hoped they would find some shelter in time. He didn't want to spend another night in the woods, trying to stay warm as rain poured down on them.

He shifted strap of the rifle on his shoulder before turning back to see Clementine watching him intently with her golden eyes, just waiting for him to keep going. He sighed as he turned back and continued onward, knowing that when she was in this kind of mood, there wouldn't be much chance of getting her to talk about anything.

It had been a few days since they had agreed to start staying closer to the road. While Alex hated being so exposed, that if anyone looked close enough into the woods they would be able to Clem's purple shirt or his own dull red shirt, it was necessary to try and find supplies. They only had a few bottles of water left and even less food, forcing them to ration out what little they had left, and since they were still a lot of abandoned cars along the sides of the road, there was bound to be some supplies left in one of them.

As they walked through the woods, Alex knew that they were following a pattern that they had been doing since it had become just the two of them: he would focus on the path in front of them, scanning from side to side, and after a short time, he would glance over towards the road, to see if there were any threats or supplies; Clem did the same towards the other side, while also glancing backwards, to make sure they weren't being followed. Alex knew it was exhausting, having to have mindset that they could be attacked from any direction, but he figured it was better to be safe than sorry. All it would take is for one of them to not pay attention, to let their attention stray, for both of them to die.

Alex noticed that there was a clearing up ahead, and while he would have normally had them just go around it, there was a building standing in the middle of it, so he decided it worth their while to check it out. He signaled to Clem, indicating that there was something up ahead that they might want to check out. He crept to the edge of the clearing, and kneeling behind a fallen log, took a good long look at the building.

It was an old convenience store, but it had definitely seen better days: the windows were shattered, leaving broken glass lying on the ground, adding another obstacle; there were a few old, rusting cars parked outside, but they looked as if they had been there since the end of the world started. The best thing about it was that it seemed as if no one had been there in quite some time, dead or living.

"What do you think?" Alex asked, preparing for a teaching moment as Clementine studied the building.

"There's no sign of anyone around, but that doesn't mean there couldn't be a walker inside."

"Good. What else?"

"The cars provide a good defense, in case we need to hide somewhere, but the building itself is not very defensible."

"Why is that?"

"With all the windows broken, it would be easy for someone to be able to look in, or for a walker to just climb in."

"But what about the broken glass? Wouldn't that make a sound if something stepped on it?"

"Yes, but it could also make a sound if we stepped on it, alerting any threats to us."

"True. So, based on all of that, what do you think?"

Clementine thought for a moment, giving the building a final look over, before turning to Alex.

"We have to check it for supplies, but I think we should try someone where else to stay for the night."

"I agree we should check it for supplies, but I disagree that we should go somewhere else." Clementine looked as if she was going to argue, giving another reason why they should go somewhere else, but stopped when Alex continued. "Mainly, for the reason that you missed one thing about the building."

"And what is that?"

Alex pointed to what he meant, and Clementine followed his finger and he watched as her gaze fell upon… the restrooms.

Alex laughed at the look of disgust she made, but it was a hollow laugh, because it just reminded him how young she really was… and how old he was treating her. He knew that in this world there was no room for not teaching her stuff like this, but it didn't mean that he had to enjoy it.

"What about them?" She asked, looking like she didn't want to know the answer.

"Since most restrooms have locks on the inside, it would be a good defensible position, as we would be able to lock ourselves in for the night and not have to worry about any intrusions."

"But…" Clementine started, looking like she didn't fancy the idea of spending the night in an area where people relieved themselves.

"But what?"

"But… nothing."

Alex glanced over at her, the smile dropping from his face as he saw that she had the hardened look back in her eyes. Now that she had a moment of childishness, its serious business for the rest of the day.

"Alright, let's scour the store for anything we might need, and then let's turn our attention to the restrooms. Hey," he said, catching her arm as she started to head off already, "we do things together, remember?"

She glanced down at his arm before shrugging it off, but she at least gave him a nod before continuing toward the building, unsheathing her knife on the way. Alex watched head off, worrying about the kind of person she was becoming. I can only do so much for her, he thought, as he got up to follow her. She has grown so much in the last two years, seeing so much that someone her age shouldn't have had to deal with, and yet, at the same time, I still see the scared little girl that I met so long ago.

He didn't let himself get caught up in his thoughts, because he wanted to clear out the store before the oncoming storm hit. It didn't take Clementine and him too long for long to sweep the store, finding barely anything of use to them; the only thing that they took was a first aid kit, barely stocked, that Clementine found under the counter.

They agreed to each sweep a restroom, with Alex taking the men's room and Clem taking the women's. As they each approached their door, Alex unsheathed his own knife, before glancing over to see Clem preparing to enter.

"Be careful, alright?" She nodded, before slowly opening the door and heading in. He took a deep breath, prepared himself, and followed suite. It was quick work making sure nothing in any of the stalls would try to shoot him or take a chunk out of him; the only things he found were trash, some leaves, and a large, questionable dark stain the in the middle of the floor.

Alex moved to sheath his weapon, when he heard a something that sounded like someone getting shoved against a wall. He walked closer toward the wall to hear it again, but much harder. It only took him a moment to process that the sounds were coming from the wall… that joined the women's restroom.

Alex didn't hesitate, racing out of the door and throwing open the other one to see Clementine on the ground, fighting off a fresh-looking female biter that had her pinned. He rushed forward, prepared to end it, when Clem beat him to it, shoving her knife deep in its head. It squirmed for another moment, before becoming literal dead weight on her.

"Are you okay?" he asked, grabbing a hold of one of the biter's arms and helping to drag it off of the girl as she pushed.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just got caught off-guard." She replied tensely, getting up and wiping off some blood. After quickly checking her over to make sure that she really was ok, all the adrenaline turned to anger at the thought of her almost dying because she was 'caught off-guard.' If there were more than one biter, I would understand, but there is no reason she shouldn't have been able to take care of just one!

"Caught off-guard?!" Alex yelled. "How?! What could have possibly thrown you off-guard?!"

"Does it matter? I was caught off-guard and it won't happen again."

"But why did it happen in the first place?!" Clementine didn't look at him, forcing her gaze toward the end of the room. Alex followed her gaze and all the anger went out of him, as he saw what had made her lose her focus.

In the corner of the room, was the remains of a child, a little girl, who couldn't have been older than five or six, with bits and pieces of her body scattered around. From the two suitcases next to her, it was obvious that she had been with someone else, but it wasn't until Alex walked over and found a ripped photo of the girl and her mother that he realized why Clem had been so thrown off-guard.

"The biter…"

"-Was her mother. Now you know why I was caught off-guard." And with that Clementine walked out, leaving Alex to say a quiet apology to the child, before making sure that she wouldn't come back, and then going through the suitcases to find anything of worth. After removing a few cans of food and two water bottles, he quickly left, unable to look at the gruesome scene any longer.

He found Clementine in the other restroom, her bag down at her feet, using one of their water bottles and a rag to clean the dirt and blood from her skin. Alex wanted to apologize, but after being with her so long, he knew that this was one of the times that he would just have to give her some time before even attempting an apology. So, he decided to follow her lead, going to the sink farthest away from her, pulling a water bottle and a rag from his bag, and began to clean up.

Alex was always surprised by how much dirt he was able to acquire, but considering he spent most of his time outside or in really dusty buildings, it shouldn't have been that surprising to him. He looked up at the mirror after finishing his face, and focused on his grey-blue eyes, sighing softly. Whenever he saw his own eyes, they would remind him of Clementine's eyes: they belonged to the eyes of people who had seen way too much.

He ran a hand through his black hair, trying to knock any loose twigs or leaves from it, before deciding it was fine. Glancing over toward Clem, he noticed she was using her knife to trim her hair, as she often did in order to make sure that no biter would grab it. Alex had once asked why she had trimmed it so often, and she had simply gave him a look, before saying, "He told me to," and turning her attention back to her hair.

Alex had long given up expecting her to talk to him about what happened to Lee, the man that had been her surrogate father. In the beginning she might accidently mention him, as if she expected to turn around and see the man standing there, smiling at her, but then, as if the memories hit her like a freight train, she would freeze, a thousand expressions going across her face. It was times like that Alex had learned to give her space and let her bring herself back. Now, Alex would be lucky to even hear the man's name, let alone see the reaction from her.

He was pulled out of his thoughts by the rumble of thunder, making Alex even more thankful that they had found shelter for the night. With a groan of relief, he set down his bag and unslung his rifle, setting both of them down. Somedays I feel like a pack animal, he thought, crouching down, opening his bag and pulling a small bedroll, beginning the process of setting up a decent place to sleep for the night. However, if I didn't care all of this, I doubt I would be able to survive. Oh, how the struggle

"Hey Clem, do you want me to set up your sleeping area?" He looked up at her, locking eyes in the mirror, before she nodded and turned her attention back to her hair. Alex reached over and pulled her bag him, opening and pulling out her bedroll, before noticing an old can at the bottom of the bag. He smiled to himself, taking another quick look at it before closing the bag, setting to the side, and beginning to unfurl her sleeping bag next to his.

Finishing that, he decided to go outside and relieve himself, before settling down for the night. While he was in a restroom, he didn't want to pee near where he slept, and there was nothing worse than having stand and take a piss in the middle of a thunderstorm. Add in the factor of having to watch and make sure there were no biters near to take bite out of him, it made things very uncomfortable.

After coming back in, and taking a moment to lock the door behind him, he went and sat down on his bedroll. He had just set himself up comfortably, using most of it as padding against the back wall so he could still sit up and watch the door, when the sky broke open, rain pelting against the window and wind threatening to try blow the building away. Streaks of lightening lite up the room, and with it, Alex watched Clem flinch with each roar of thunder afterwards.

"I'll take the first watch. Sound good?"

"Yeah, sounds good."

He watched as she got into her sleeping bag and turned away from him. As soon as it looked like she had gotten settled, he shifted to make himself a little more comfortable before reaching over, pulling out a small, hand-cranked electric lamp from his bag, gave it a few good cranks, and watched as the darkness was pushed away by a dim light. He then grabbed his rifle, and prepared to watch the door for a good portion of the night. While he hated taking watch first, wanting nothing better than just curling up in that sleeping bag and sleeping for the night, he knew that no matter how safe they thought they were, it was better to be safe than sorry.

That was the mantra that Clementine and him had been living there lives. It dictated everything that did: from the places that they checked out to the reason why it was just the two of them, if either one of it felt that they were risking too much for not enough benefit, they would walk away. Plain and simple. It had made things lonely over the years, especially after the loss of Chuck, but it had kept them alive so far, and Alex wasn't planning on causing it to change anytime soon.

It wasn't even thirty minutes later, that Alex felt Clementine shifting next to him. He was sure that she hadn't fallen asleep yet, as he hadn't heard her breathing change, but he didn't want to bother her in case she was still pissed about him snapping at her earlier. He heard her sigh, before facing him, her golden eyes locking on to his.

"Can't sleep?" She shook her head before scooting closer. Alex smiled before raising his arm up, and Clementine took the invitation, curling up against him, resting her head on his shoulder. They sat like that for several moments before Clementine spoke.

"I keep thinking about that girl…"

"It wasn't you fault, Clem. There was nothing you could do."

"I know there was nothing I could." She snapped, glaring at him, before settling back against him. "I keep thinking how that girl could have been me."

Alex glanced down at her, surprised that she was talking about this; normally, she would bottle it up until it manifested itself in a nightmare or her being sullen for a few days. He wanted to ask more about what brought this on, but when he saw that she was in her own little world, he kept quiet, waiting for her to continue.

"I walked in there, and heard that something was in there. I had my knife out, ready to kill it, when I turned the corner and saw her. When I saw that little girl lying there, with her mother eating her face, I froze, thinking about how if…if…" She choked up, unable to say anymore as Alex's arms instinctively wrapped around the small girl, pulling the girl closer.

"Hey, it's okay."

Clementine took a deep breath before trying to continue.

"If… Lee hadn't found me, I could have ended up like that little girl, or if he hadn't been… strong enough to ask me to shoot him, I would have been just another walker wandering the streets of Savannah…. just like my parents."

Alex sat, slightly stunned that in that short time he had found out more about what happened to both Lee and her parents. In all the time he had spent travelling with her, he had never gotten a piece of information out of her other than that they were gone, and to now get it all in the span of a few minutes, confused the hell out of him.

He pushed aside his confusion as he watched her pull over her bag, pulling out the old can from the bottom of it, before removing an old, torn photograph that had been stuffed inside. It was the old photo of Lee that Alex hadn't seen since that night in the treehouse all those years ago.

"Alex… I miss Lee." She pulled the photo close to her chest and Alex could feel her shoulders shake as the tears begin to slip out. Alex pulled her tighter, as memories of the man came back to him as well.

"I miss him too, Clem. I miss him too."

They stayed like that, with Clementine crying softly into Alex's shoulder as he held her. He didn't know how long she had been bottling this up, and he didn't care. If she needed him, then he would be here for her, no matter what. Even with the storm raging outside, it was easy to ignore it and focus on the girl next to him, helping her cope with the pain that she had been dealing with for so long.

Eventually, Alex noticed that Clem's breathing had changed and that she had fallen asleep on him, still clutching the photo. Glancing at his watch, he knew that he still had a few more hours to go before it was her turn to take watch, but he was willing to let her sleep. Alex was sure that he would be able to stay up the night, but it wasn't long before his eyes getting heavy and soon, he was out like a light.

AN: Hello there readers! I hope you enjoy the first chapter of We May Survive, the sequel to We Will Survive. If you are starting with this, I suggest you go back and read the first story so you know what has happned, but hey, it is your choice.

It has been nearly a year since I wrote anything in the Walking Dead universe, but I have not let that time go to waste. I have been working on my writing, attempting to increase my skill as a writer. I hoped I manage to actually do it, but hey, what do I know?

Anyway, I want you to let me know what you think, so please, don't hesistate to leave a review or just PM me if you have constructive criticism. If you want to just say that I'm doing a great job, you may also leave a review or just PM me. If you just be a hater... well, I can't stop you, but I will probably ignore you.

Finally, thanks for reading, and I hope to have the next chapter out soon!