The only thing i can feel, is pain.

White hot pain racing and coursing through me, blinding my eyes and stiling my body from moving.

Blood everywhere, my eyes soaked with the blood that ran through myself or Aj and the only thing i can hear is someone crying, screaming and calling after Aj. Little did i know, the unhuman cry for him, was coming from myself…..

Slowly opening my eyes, I sit up and feel a dull throb in the back of my head. While sitting up I notice my arm is stuck to the pole of what i now realize is a…. bunk bed? The firm mattress digs into my legs while I turn my head, looking around the room. I realize that it's a dorm room, well, what's left of one anyway. The paint on the walls are dark grey and chipped, floor boards covered in dirt, rust, stains and the mattress squeals anytime I move or shift. Looking at the thing binding my arm to the bedpost I see that it's only duct tape. Why the hell would they only use duct tape to keep me bound, don't they realize how easy it is to get out of it?

Pulling the tape off of my arm I turn and slip off of the mattress, I softly place my feet down, but as soon as I stand I immediately sway. I guess i'm not as okay as I thought. Stepping another step the pain I feel flares, what the hell? Looking down at my feet they're fine, my legs….. are fine, my stomach….. Fine, my arms… oh. Wrapped around my right arm is a bandage soaked red, the opposite arm of the scar from that dog from a few years ago….. This is just great, I'm in a new place, Aj's not in site and now my dominant arm is hurt. Fucking great. I walk over to the door at the end of the room and grab the handle and turn it. Fucking hell, its locked from the outside. I pat down my pockets. I feel the knife in the back pant waist, thank god it's still there. I jam it in between the lock and door knob. Breaking the joint.

Slowly slipping out of the door of the dorm room, I hear the soft sound of people walking closer to me. It doesn't help that the hall has no cover and isn't bright let alone well lit. I duck behind the small column in the wall and press my back towards the wall. All i need is to find Aj and leave this… whatever it is. I don't need to rely on a group or "city". Nothing has come from doing that, and I sure as hell won't put Aj through that again… or myself.

"Go check on the girl, that kid needs to be calmed down… he almost bit me... " One of the voices says while getting closer. I peak around the column and see two figures in the distance, a taller figure with what looks like… a bow(?) in his hand. Just great, he has the advantage here. The other figure looks smaller, a child maybe? He doesn't look armed, I could take him on…. But I need Aj I can't be taking risks right now.

The older of the two figures steps into the soft light and approaches my door, he has a blonde mullet and a large stature. He looks at the door and sees the picked lock. "Well shit, my door!" The smaller of the 2 laughs softly and turns around, he looks like Aj, except along the side of his head is a burn that webs and wraps around his checks and circles around his ear,he makes eye contact with me. Fuck.

I grab the knife from the back of my pant waist and put myself into fight mode, leaning forward, hands level and feet ready to move. But before I can make a move, the taller of the two steps forward. "We're not here to harm you, just put the knife down..."

I slowly place my knife back into my pant waist, and raise my hands above my head. The last thing I need is to piss these people off, especially when I'm so obviously outnumbered. "There we go, don't worry we're friendly as long as you are. We haven't seen anyone so young come by in awhile, how old are you?"

I'm taken off by their questions, why the hell are they so trusting of a stranger? Just because I'm young doesn't mean I'm nice…..

"I'm 17…"

"Well I'll be damned, you're the same age as all of us. Well, most of us anyway. Vi and Brody will definitely be excited to meet you. I'm Marlon, this is Tennessee, Tenn if you wanna shorten it."

"Uh, hi. I'm Clementine" I say lowering my hands. Marlon turns around and gestures for me to follow. "Come on I'll show you where everyone is. You had us worried for a while you were in some pretty bad shape. Your head was bleeding for awhile, but it scabbed over and well, your awake now so you must be doing aight." The blonde haired teen says with a chuckle.

We slowly walk down the wooden hallway, walls covered in carvings, posters and the furniture is trashed… I don't really see the point in trashing furniture when it could be used, but it's not my setup. It's kinda surprising there's still people living here though. All of the schools (I think this is a school?) I've ever been to after everything went to shit were either overrun or just trashed to shit and scrapped for parts. Either these people are lucky, or they're smarter than they look and act.

"So, who's the leader of this place" I ask when we walk through a door leading to a courtyard. Marlon turns around and turns up his lip into a half smile "Well, uh, I am."

"Wait, so there's no adult in charge?" I ask taken aback.

"No, this is a place, run by kids, for kids and protecting kids." Marlon says with arms spread wide. "If you want a real introduction, this is Ericson Boarding school for troubled kids." He says with his voice dripping of sarcasm and arms spread wide while circling around.

"This is kinda impressive, I've never met so many alive kids my age before…"

"Well, you've met us now." Marlon says with a smile.

I slowly turn taking in the surroundings, there's couches surrounding small fire pits, a group of picnic benches, a cellar door, ivy and moss embracing everything it can touch. It doesn't look like a bad set up… The walls are high, the gate looks sturdy, and they even have lookout towers.

"Where's Aj, the boy that was in the car with me?" I ask Marlon as he stops to talk with another boy. Marlon turns around and looks at me. "Oh right, he's with Louis. Just go inside and follow the music." I nod in return and turn around.

Walking back inside, there's an eerie piano playing in the background, I follow through the hallways. It's amazing at how well put together this place seems to be despite the state it looks to be in.

"That little fucker bit me! Fuck!" A chubby redhead yells as she walks down to the hall, gripping her wrist. I put my hand out to stop her "did you get bit by a walker?" The red head looks at me with utter disgust lacing her eyes, "No, i'm not dumb enough to get bitten by a deadhead, your kid fucking bit me. Go fucking calm him down!" I take a step back "I-i'm sorry, he gets a little aggressive when i'm not around..."

The redheads expression softens, "Ugh, just go put him on a leash."

Reaching the end of the hallway, I reach a thick wooden door and push it open. The sound of the piano grew and I step inside of the room. I notice a small head of natural hair watching a teen play a piano and I run up behind him. Hugging him from behind and smiling, "Hey, goofball."

Aj turned around and hugs me, "Clem! I thought you were hurt, don't do that again." I laugh, "I don't plan on getting injured again goofball."

"I'm too old to be called goofball, i'm 6. It's Aj now." The small boy says with a slight pout, "Kid you're not old yet…" i turn to the new voice and realize that i completely ignored the other person in the room.

"S-sorry, i didn't mean to ignore you. Thank you for watching him, I hope he wasn't a handle full." I say while the boy smiles at me and laughs. "He was a little bit of a rabid dog, but over all he was a good kid."

I smile and nod, "I'm Clementine…"

The teen smiled back " I'm Louis, welcome. If you want I'd be happy to show a lovely lady like yourself around."

I nodded, "That would be awesome, thanks."

Louis smiles at me and perks up, he almost looks like a dog with how happy my acceptance made him. I can almost imagine a pair of ears atop his head.

The teens dreaded locks sway back and forth as he stands and gestures for me to follow.

Louis walks through the corridors and hallways, pointing out the main rooms, graffiti and trashed halls and dorms. By the end of it i knew that the food was served and made outside in the courtyard Marlon took me to, as was all the other stuff they did. Despite having a massive school with thick walls and blocked /barracked halls the only time they were inside was to sleep or if there was shitty weather. It was interesting, knowing how much differently they lived then I had anticipated. Despite having such a safe building and surroundings they didn't use it unless it was absolutely necessary like hunting or sleeping. Maybe they just didn't have a care whether or not they lived. Or maybe they thrived on living on the edge.

"Clementine"

It wouldn't be the first time I'd met a group that thrives off of the thrill of the dangerous world- "Clementine!"

I snap out of my thoughts and look up, "shit sorry what did you say?" Louis gave me a knowing smile, "I was asking if you wanted to meet everyone else."

I shook my head, "Yeah, let's go meet everyone else."

Louis lead Aj and I out to the yard, "And finally on my grand tour, this is our main area. We pretty much do everything here. It's funny really." Louis points at the red head i saw earlier "That's Ruby, she's a bit of a clean freak with a chronic need for manners." Pointing at Marlon, "That's Marlon, he's our designated leader, he's chill and my best friend so you know he's top quality." Louis then points out a few other kids; Mitch the designated strategist, Brody the second in command, Aasim the hunter, Willy the second youngest in the group and Omar their chef. "Lastly, there's Violet. She's pretty chill, but she's…. A little hard to get to know. Her girlfriend was killed while hunting for food about a year ago. She's always been sorta, cold, but after that happened it's gotten to the point where she doesn't really talk to any of us anymore. So don't take it personally if she doesn't talk to you." I nod my head in understanding, love was hard to come by nowadays. It must really hurt to lose the one actually good thing in a world that's gone to hell. Louis walks forward, joining the conversation Marlon and Willy seem to be having.

I stop when i feel a soft tug, "Clem, do you think we can stay here?" Aj asked while tugging on my sleeve. I sigh, "I'm not sure Aj, we just got here. We don't even know these people, let alone know if they even want or need more people." Aj hangs his head, "Right. If we can we should stay, i'm sick of just driving around and scouting old buildings"

I sigh, "We'll talk about it buddy, come on though, let's go talk with the others-"

"Marlon there's deadheads on the fence!" The boy Marlon pointed out earlier as Willy yelled.

Marlon ran over to the three of us and looked to me, "I know you just got here and your arms still kinda fucked, but do you think you can help us?"

I nod, "Definitely, Aj stays here though.I don't want him out there." Marlon nods his head and waves for me to follow. "Violet and Louis, lets fucking go! Has anyone seen Rosie?"

"No, is she in the office?" Louis asks while picking up a chair leg from the corner of the yard. Louis smiles at me and shows me his chair leg, "This is Chairles, he's a loyal friend." I smile and shake my head. "Come on, lets go kill some walkers or as you guys call them, dead heads."

Stepping through the back gate, Marlon places his hand on my shoulder and turns to me. "We need to just take them out till the hunting group can reach the gate then head back inside quickly. Got it?" I nod, "Kill until the group arrives, I got it."

I step forward, drawing the knife from the back of my pant waist. The first few walkers that step forward are met with my knife in their face followed by a sickening crush. I side step around their grabbing hands and elbow the walker behind me making it stumble back. I turn on my heel and kick it in the knee, it falls down with a groan. I stab it in the head while turning and check my now exposed back and I take out my blade from the walkers skull. If i've learned one thing after being in this hell for 8 years is that no matter what you never leave your back exposed without checking behind you every so often. Too many people have died from not being careful….

Their deaths are always on my mind, the smallest things make me remember them and how they died. Cars remind me of Kenny getting paralyzed when I crashed the car, fights between people remind me of Jane's death, lakes and open water remind me of Luke and I trapped under the lake and its thick layer of ice. Worst of all everytime I kill a walker I always see Lee's face. Despite me killing the only person who has ever cared for me in my life over 8 years ago, everytime i kill a walker all i think of is how i killed… him. Their deaths and the rest of my groups deaths always have and will weigh heavily on my shoulders, because i killed all of them, and i'll never forget that.

After clearing the walkers in my general area, I look around at the others. Louis is bashing walker heads in with his chair leg. For such a clunky weapon it's surprisingly effective. Ruby and Marlon are by the gates fending off walkers trying to head inside of the school yard, and Violet is on the outskirts. Decapitating walkers with her cleaver and checking over her shoulder constantly. After seeing these kids fight they're a pretty decent group, I see why they've been able to last so long…..

After clearing the walkers closest to the fence, we help the hunting group inside. Louis, Violet and I slowly walk back to the gate. Violet turns to me and shyly smiles, "Good job out there, you can handle your own at least." Louis lets out a bark of laughter. "What Vi means is, Wow Clem you did really good out there. A+ job" Violet glares at him, "Whatever." and turns her head away, her short blonde hair hiding her expression. I smirk, "You guys did really good out there, i've never met a group of people who have fought walkers that well before." Both look at me with wide eyes and their faces turn red. Louis quickly turns away and laughs, "Me and Chairles are just naturals."

Reaching the gate Aj runs up to me, "Great job Clem, except you should've paid more attention to your surroundings instead of watching the others." Aj says with a small scowl. I laugh and follow Aj to the group that just came in. "That's what people do in a group Goofball." Aj scrunches up his eyebrows and looks down. "This is the first time we've had a group since the ranch…" I run my non injured hand through his hair, "This isn't the ranch buddy, these are good people."

He nods and walks away to sit at a picnic table with Tenn. Hopefully he'll learn that not all groups are as bad as the ranch was… the ranch was just a fluke. It was like the dairy farm all over again. I hate myself a little more everyday for ever letting the frontier take him there.

Marlon's voice breaks me from my thoughts, he looks at what was collected and grimaces. "Damn, were the traps fucked with again? Next time bring Rosie, she'll help check the place out." The team nods, a red haired girl looks at me and glares, "Who the fuck is that?" She says turning to Marlon. "This is Clementine, and the boy over there with Tenn is Aj. We found them yesterday, they were in a pretty bad car wreck. Clem this is Brody and Brody this is Clem. Brody play nice"

I give a small wave, introductions have never been a strong suit of mine….

"Whatever just make sure you and that kid pull your fucking weight, we don't need dead weight."

Violet and Marlon look confused at her behaviour, "What the hell was that about?" Violet asks with an eye roll. "Someone go get her a tampon, maybe it'll help find the stick up her ass." Marlon glares, his eyes filled with irritation, "Vi I don't need your crap right now. Everyone go give this all to Omar and he'll get dinner ready. Till then leave Brody alone and don't do anything stupid. Clem and Aj, just… get to know everyone. We'll talk in the morning about making this a permanent arrangement."

I give a slight nod of my head to let him know i understood, "I'll go see what i can do to help."

Violet and Louis give me a quick nod while they gather up all the material and head over to an ethnic teen with curls, who i'm assuming is Omar. I turn and start walking over to Omar. This isn't a bad place to be, I just hope to whatever god out there that it doesn't fall apart…