NINE DAYS DURING
After the terrible conflict that occurred at the Rest Stop, Clementine, Kenny, and Alvin Junior find new resolve and make their way North to find Wellington. It took them 9 days to encounter The Wall and meet Edith, but what exactly happened during that time?
A/N- Here's a look on what may have happened. And a Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays to you all! :) This story is a present for TWDGamerKenny'sBro, my buddy who is co-writing our version of Season 3 which we will update very soon, thank you for your patience and support. :)
The Third Day...
The coos and whimpers from baby AJ in her arms were getting more and more noticeable. He usually didn't fuss this much, maybe he was just cranky he didn't fall asleep earlier. Perhaps he needed a change?
"He alright?" The bearded man called back to her, snapping her attention to Kenny instead. "You want me to hold him?"
"I got him. It's okay." The little girl responded. Truth be told, Clementine denied Kenny to hold the baby every time since he killed Jane. She was still slightly mad at him for not listening to her, and the fact that she just let him kill a woman in front of her, even though she kind of had it coming to tricking Kenny, this was a sorts a little punishment.
"We can stop and rest in an hour. Find someplace warm, make a fire... something." Kenny sighed as he scratched his graying beard. "You gotta be tired for carrying him all day."
"I'm fine, Kenny." She reassured him with a nod while gently rocking the innocent infant. "Don't worry."
"I always gotta worry, hon." He muttered quietly as he stopped walking, waiting for Clementine to catch up to him. They were in the middle of a snow-covered coniferous forest. Trees all around with pine needles and dead leaves littered the ground, but at least they didn't have to trudge through the deep snow... not yet anyways. Kenny looked around. "We can stop here if you want. Least we won't be fightin' the wind here..."
[Stop Here]
[Keep Going]
"I can keep going." She really was tired honestly, but she also wanted to make some more distance today. She knew Kenny wanted that too, however she was sure he was concerned for herself and the baby too.
"At least lemme take Alvie then. Your arms must be sore as hell, you don't wanna get them all stuck that way, do ya?" He lightly joked at her as he offered his own arms for her to give him the child. "Clem, I'm good." He attempted to comfort her.
(0) Hand over AJ.
She supposed three days was enough...
Clementine reluctantly handed Alvin Junior to an almost overjoyed Kenny who was smiling like she hadn't seen in days. "Hey there little buddy." He shushed him quietly. "Shh shh... I know, I know. You miss ole Kenny?" He looked grateful to the little girl for honoring his request finally, but then he smirked at her. "Can you feel them?"
It was only then that Clem could feel the cramps alleviate, the blood fully rush to all parts of her upper limbs, and so on in that fashion as she let her arms freely fall to her sides. It felt good. "Just barely." She smirked back.
"Let's keep going then." And they trudged on and on until the three of them made it out of the forest and out into the open.
They found themselves on the side of the road, but what they found in the middle of it made their stomachs turn. A single walker only just noticing their living scent and presence was clawing at them but to no avail. It's lower half was what appeared to be steamrolled to the pavement, leaving the torso up intact and its intestines and legs pancaked. Whether it was run over as it mindlessly crossed the road or rather this was the cause of death remained unclear. Nevertheless, it was still gruesome.
"Poor bastard." Kenny grumbled while adjusting AJ in his arms. "Hell of a way to go. Run over like an animal."
It was rare to have sympathy for walkers that were strangers, but when Clem's eyes found the dog-tags hanging off it's dead neck, she imagined this used to be a good guy too. "Do you think that's what killed him?" Clementine inquired from her close companion, seeking his input.
"Well, if it did... I hope he didn't suffer." He then looked around at the scene, looking for any clues or lack thereof. "On second thought he was probably already dead when he got hit."
"How can you tell?" Clem asked as they cautiously approached the lurker.
"Ain't no signs of them hittin' the brakes. See?" He pointed all along the road. "No brake marks. So these guys musta had something heavy to do this kinda damage, they weren't stopping for this guy."
"So, could there be people in the area?" The little girl inquired further.
"They could be long gone, but we should stay on our toes and keep watch tonight, just to be sure." Kenny then gave a look at Clementine and motioned towards the half-squashed walker. "Go on, one less to worry about."
Clementine nodded in response and pulled out her hatchet as she walked up to the still immobile clawing lurker. Judging from his appearance, he didn't die much too long ago, but there was no doubt he was in uniform, he was young though, and it was a waste to have someone like this die in the middle of all this. "I'm sorry this happened to you."
The little girl raised her hatchet and didn't waste anymore time diving it down directly into the top of its skull, silencing its groans and rendering it motionless. Clementine slightly struggled pulling it back out, but the job was done.
Kenny spoke up. "I think I know what happened to that guy, Clem." His eyebrow furrowed at the thought as he and Clem crossed the road and into the second half of the forest on the other side.
"Yeah? What is it?" Clementine tried to think of a guess, but Kenny already beat her to it.
"A tank would explain it." He looked back at the scene one last time before they entered the trees. "Makes sense, dead men don't get outta the way for a tank."
They were engulfed in the forest now, and the road behind them could no longer be seen now. Someone has a tank out here? Now that could be really good or really bad. Clementine decided to put in her two cents. "Do you think it could be like those guys in the army?" Military were good people, right?
Kenny sighed and shook his head at that. "You think his soldier buddies would've just run him over like that? Naw..."
"No." Clem immediately agreed with him. If that was true then other people have this supposed tank and ran over that dead man in uniform. The thought of that made her feel uneasy. The same can be said for Kenny. "We should keep off the roads then, but try to keep going North too."
(?) Kenny took note of that.
The wounded warrior smirked at that. "Atta girl, Clem."
Clementine sniffed and wiped her nose for nearly every minute as they spent the last leg of their trek for that day hidden in the cold forest. They were burning daylight fast and they needed shelter and a fire before things got too cold, especially for Alvie. "We need to stop here tonight, Kenny."
"I know, I know." He assured her while looking around for a soft space of dirt to sit down on.
"Wait." Clem halted him and she vaguely spotted a glint or reflection off the last orange wisps of sunset light. "What's that?" She pointed to their left.
Kenny followed her finger and his eyes widened as he deduced what it was. "Holy shit... C'mon Clem." He told her as they made their way to the thing Clem found. It wasn't until now that Clementine figured out what she spotted among the brush here.
It was a small camouflaged trailer, probably used for hunting. It's design was small but it hid among background enough to fool almost even them. Thankfully, this would be some comfortable shelter as opposed to sleeping outside. Had to check it if it wasn't already occupied though.
"Here take the baby." Kenny instructed her as she took AJ into her arms once again. "I'm gonna clear this thing out for us. Watch our backs."
The little girl simply nodded as she watched Kenny cautiously opened the door to find that it was not locked. He swung it open with his gun raised and he headed inside it. After a moment or two, Kenny came back out with a pleased look on his face. "It's safe, come on in."
"Good." Was all she could say as she sniffed again. She stepped up with AJ in her arms and entered the trailer, closing the door behind her and locking it so that they could remain, relatively safe. She looked around inside and found that the entire interior was painted black. There was at least one window and a single bed in the single room they were in, and a lawn chair faced out towards the window. She also noticed a couple of crushed old beer cans on the ground too...
"You see? These people used this thing as a deer blind so the animals couldn't see them here. They would wait for them to come out and they'd shoot from there." He pointed at the window as he explained to her. "This is a nice one, still in decent shape."
So hunters used to be here. Got it. "I'm glad we found it." But then a worrying thought entered her mind. "You think people will come back here?"
"We'll leave first thing in the morning." Kenny assured her with a smile. "If we keep the lights off we'll practically be invisible here at night. But if it comes to that, I protect you both, I promise."
She believed him. "Okay." Clem sniffed again and this time Kenny noticed as she went over to place Alvie down on the bed.
"What's the matter Clementine?" The bearded man asked with a tone of concern. "You got the sniffles?"
"Yeah." She did it again, but more pronounced to confirm it. "I've been doing it all day..." Clem crossed her arms and pouted. "It's really annoying."
"Aw, I'm sorry darlin'. C'mere." He motioned her to step toward him. She did, and Kenny lifted the back of his hand to feel for a fever. "Ain't too warm yet. Probably just a cold. Lemme see what we got."
Kenny slung the sack of supplies he lug around on his back. It wasn't very heavy so they knew they would need to find more stuff tomorrow. ...No medicine of the sorts. "Damn." He pulled out a can of beans instead. "Sorry."
"It's okay." Clem plopped down on the bed beside AJ as did Kenny on the other side. "I can deal with it."
Kenny sighed as he happily reminisced. "I remember, long time ago, back when Sarita first found me..." He paused sadly at first. "She said her number one goal was to get me to laugh... somehow. Said that'd get me outta my slump, make me feel better."
Clementine had a feeling that his unfortunate girlfriend was successful at that at some point. But better yet, she was surprised he was talking about her at this point. "How'd she get you to laugh?"
"You already think she won at that?" He grinned at her.
"I know she did. Definitely won you over." She grinned back while glancing down at a slumbering infant in front of them.
He chuckled. "It was the dumbest fuckin' joke I ever heard, she said she heard it from an old man before all this happened. You wanna hear it?"
Laughter was one of the best medicines, so why not. "Sure."
"Okay gimme a sec, it's a long one. Gotta get it right." Kenny paused again trying his best to collect the whole story of the joke. "Alright here it is. There's this Farmer that walks into a bar-! You know what a bar is right?"
"Um..." Clem scratched the back of her head. "Kind of. It's a place where adults go to drink and hangout, right?"
(?) Kenny will remember that.
"Yeah but, how do you know that?" He pried.
"I go out drinking every night. Don't you remember Kenny?" Clementine joked with a cheeky grin on her face. She wanted to mess with him.
And he returned it. "Really? Well then you should start taking me with you then."
"No," She shook her head at him. "You have to watch AJ, I'll have enough fun for the both of us."
Kenny wanted to create another clever comeback for little ms. smart-ass. But he was getting sidetracked. It was then that he noticed a small battery-operated heater. He flicked it on and by some miracle it worked, and he left it on the floor so that the heat would rise. "You're still too young to be running around bars... can't imagine."
"So~ you getting back to the Farmer?"
"Yeah yeah... where was I?" Trying to recollect his comedic composure.
She led him back in. "Farmer walks into a bar..." She brought her legs up into her chest so that she could hug her knees. "Go ahead."
He nodded and began the entirety of the joke. "Right... so Farmer walks into a bar and in comes this three-legged pig right behind him." Clem raised an eyebrow at that, maybe this will be interesting. "So the Farmer pulls up a stool for him and the pig, and they both sit down. Now the bartender was all, 'Hey get the pig outta my bar.' Farmer goes 'This ain't an ordinary pig, this pig saved my life, and if you let him stay and give us both drinks, I'll tell you how'."
"You with me so far, hon?" Kenny paused to make sure she understood to which she simply nodded and told him to continue, now intently listening and too invested to just stop. "Alright so..."
"The Bartender gives the Pig and the Farmer drinks so then he begins to explain. He said that they had a fire at their farmhouse and the pig broke outta his sty and woke everybody up. Got them all outta there and then it went back and brought the dog out. The bartender didn't get it, he said. 'But why does the Pig only have three legs?' The Farmer said that another time he got stuck under his tractor, crying out for help. Pig heard him, broke outta his sty again, found him, lifted the tractor off of him, and it saved his life again. Finally the Bartender's getting mad so he asked just one more time. 'So, why does the Pig only have three legs?'"
So Kenny finished up the joke. "And the Farmer says to him, 'Well after all that Pig did for us, it didn't seem right to eat him all at once.' " He signaled when to laugh with his own snicker.
There was a moment where it had to register in the eleven year old. "Oh god..." Clementine rolled her eyes as she used the brim of her hat to hide the inevitable smile that crept up on her face. "That was bad." At least it was better than his nasty peaches and beans joke.
Kenny prided himself in his mock stand-up act. "Yeah I know, that joke was bone dry, and it makes me want to cook up some bacon."
"You read my mind." She sniffed her nose again while attempting to remember what bacon smelled like long ago. "I need to blow my nose."
"Here." Kenny weirdly enough pulled out a green handkerchief from his pocket. "Use this."
"Thanks." She gratefully accepted the cloth and proceeded to clear her little nose. *PBBT!* "Ew..."
*boom...* ... *boom...*
"What was that?" Kenny suddenly got up and made his way over towards the window. Dusk had now enveloped the land around them. Whatever that sound was it was farther off, maybe they were still safe. "That don't sound too good..."
Clementine finally cleaned up her face from all the mucus she shot out, and she deduced what that could have been with furrowed eyebrows. "Remember when we were back in Macon." She crossed her arms at the thoughts of the past. "You and Lee said the military were still fighting the walkers... this sounded like that."
"Yeah, you're right." He nodded in agreement. "Someone's got some serious firepower out there..." He thought again, that could be really good or really bad or both. "I'll keep watch for a bit darlin'. You get some rest, alright? You need it."
He was firm with his words, and she understood so no point in arguing. "Okay."
"We'll leave first thing in the morning."
A/N- A little something I cooked up. Had some random ideas here and there. Give me your thoughts, what do you think? Thanks. :)