Sacrifices

Chapter 1: The Burden We Carry

It was chaos. Complete fucking chaos. There were walkers everywhere, more than Clementine and Sarah had ever seen, even after Savannah. Neither of them could find the rest of the group. Clementine saw Sarah becoming increasingly nervous, even in the darkness. She was glancing around her, and her breathing became short and ragged. If they wanted to escape the horde alive, Sarah would have to calm down.

"Sarah. I need you to calm down. Please." Clementine said. It was as if Clementine had been talking to a wall. Sarah wasn't listening. It wasn't even clear whether she knew where she was. Their time was running out.

"Sarah!" She hissed into the void. That got her.

"What?" She asked. She truly hadn't heard what Clementine had said the first time. This was bad.

"I need you to calm down or else we aren't going to-" Just then, a bullet whizzed past the two of them and right into Carlos's neck. The walkers could smell the blood, that much was clear. They gathered around him and began to eat him. Sarah was screaming. She was screaming so loudly. The walkers were starting to hear them, and once they caught onto the two of them there, it would all be over. Threads of their plan were beginning to fall apart, and the group members began to either be injured, or die.

This was a bad idea.

Sarita was clearing out walkers, trying to get to the two girls. Bonnie was with her, but she was just standing there. She was crying...but she was also smiling. They were still separated by an ocean of walkers. The walkers noticed Sarita, too. They devoured her all too quickly as well. It was going so fast. The scent of fresh blood flooded the air, and the walkers were gathering around Sarita's corpse and Bonnie. The rest of the group was nowhere to be found.

Bonnie still wasn't doing anything. She shot her a glance of complete desperation, but Bonnie's face was still unchanged. This was it. They were going to die. It wasn't fair. Clementine and Sarah were both so young yet...they would both meet their end in this terrible darkness, in a pit of the undead where their bodies would likely never be found.

Sarah charged through the walkers, she was still screaming. She had just watched the most important person in her life die. Clementine had seen the same all too many times, but Carlos was right. If she were to really see the true nature of this world, she would cease to function. And she did. She really did.

Sarah is going to get herself killed. I don't know what to do! I'm so...scared.

She felt almost as helpless as she did in Savannah, the whole debacle with Lee...poor Lee. He was probably watching her right now, shouting at her to do something. But she couldn't. Clementine couldn't move at all. It was the first time in a while she couldn't do anything, even after she promised she would never let anything like this happen again.

Almost as a hero, Bonnie caught Sarah in her arms, and covered her mouth. Clementine let out a sigh of relief. But Bonnie didn't stop there. She was still holding Sarah's mouth shut. And she...couldn't breathe! Bonnie was suffocating her. What was she doing?

"Bonnie!" Clementine tried to yell, but it was just a whisper. The crowd was quiet save for the moans and the gunshots coming from Howe's, but the world was so loud to Clementine. Her head was screaming. The world started to fade out once Sarah's body went limp. The world was going black around her. But behind her...someone grabbed her.

Clementine woke up in a field. She stood up, her knees weak. The sun was above her, blazing. It was hot outside again. In the middle of the field sat a building. It was safer than being outside, so Clementine made her way to the building in the field. As she approached it, she realized that it had a familiar look to it. It was something so far off in her mind...but it was so close to her. She pushed her way through the gate, and her jaw dropped. It was the old motor inn.

Lee was sitting next to Carley, and he was arguing with her about whether she should take the food he was offering her. She said that he should save it, in case he or Clementine began to lose energy. Lee reluctantly put the food back into his pocket.

Clementine saw herself, but she was smaller. Younger. It was that day. The day the St. John's began to break their group. Larry died there. That was what caused the already large rift in the group to grow even larger. But after Larry died...nothing worked after that. Maybe if they never came, many of the original group members would still be alive. But if they didn't...they very well may have starved to death. There is no winning in the apocalypse.

Lee threw the food on the ground, it was soiled now.

"I'm not giving this to Clementine! She can starve for all I care." He said. Carley laughed.

Clementine turned to the younger version of herself, but she was gone. She was just a pile of clothing where she was drawing. She remembered that drawing. She didn't get to do many things like that anymore. Lee turned to Clementine.

"There you are. Do you have any idea what you've done?" Asked Lee. Clementine was crying, yet again. One would think it was her favorite thing to do.

"No." Was all she said. Lee was furious.

"Of course not. How many people are going to die protecting you?" He spat the words at her. It was like Clementine was his mortal enemy. It wasn't fair.

"Lee. It's me. Clementine." Was all she could say.

"Oh. I know exactly who it is. The girl who got me killed. The girl who got Omid killed. Christa, too. Did you know she's fucking dead?" Lee wouldn't stop talking. He didn't even give her a chance to defend herself. "Can't forget about everyone that was hurt by your little rescue mission! Poor little ben. He was a little shit anyways, just like Kenny said."
"Lee...stop!" She shouted. None of their deaths had ever been in vain, she carried the burden of their deaths day by day. It was what kept her going. Little Clementine. So little, yet so damaged. Even Pete had died in that truck to protect her.

"One day, someone's gonna put themselves before you. And I'll be waiting." He chuckled.

Clementine sat up, screaming at that same nightmare that plagues her for weeks every time someone around her gets hurt, or dies. She couldn't breathe. But this time, there was no one around her to comfort her. No Christa. Just the gun that was pressed to her forehead.