What remains...

WARNING: this story contains major spoilers for Telltalegames' The Walking Dead game. Please,
if you haven't played the game (yet) don't read any further.
You have been warned

She now was alone, all on her own in that cold wasteland of a world.
Lee told her to get to the train, where she would meet Omid and Christa.
But it wasn't that easy, hell when was it? With tears in her eyes she made her way
from the jewelery store, through the streets of Savannah, a city she certainly wouldn't
forget. It was dark and cloudy, that matched her feelings.
"I'm so..." she pinched her eyes together "sorry,... I-I..." she thought, she was so disturbed, she could not even think straight words. She could barely hold her tears back,
it all chased her, it was triggered by what just had happened, and now it all was coming up, the human slaughterhouse back at the dairy, she had to went through that, Duck's death, everything.

She strolled through the empty outskirts of Savannah, the creepy crawlies had gathered
at the hospital, mostly, the others were in the main parts of the city.
She needed some time now, urgently. "I..." she started to stutter in her mind, and dropped the thought, she felt guilty for Lee's death, after all it was her who had been the strangers' bargaining chip to get to Lee, if it wasn't for her leaving, he'd be alive, she knew it, she wasn't stupid. In fact, she was quite mature for her low age, just turned 9 and was a smart one right there, always understood what Lee did. Unlike her friend Duck, who
was about her age too, she had learned the rules of this new... godforsaken world slowly.
He never did, he never could have, he was more childish, and... well... as his own father said: "dumb as a bag of hammers"

Lee would have never wanted her to think that way, he felt for her just like he would have
for his own daughter if he ever had one, he would want her to let him go, to... to move on.

"It's all gone to shit..." Clementine said with her childish voice.
She had heard that before, someone said it, and it burned into her mind.
Swearing was the last thing she wanted to do now, because she knew Lee and her parents would give her hell for doing so, but she felt like it... had it made her feel better?
No... "what a crappy day" she exhaled, and continued "...the crappiest."
The tears came back into her eyes as she remembered sitting at the side of the boxcar with
Lee, she remembered the good times with him, when they met, their first tries to get closer... "are you okay?" she remembered herself asking Lee back at the drugstore "I'm good" she thought of him answering "good" she answered and he said "Well... yeah... being good is good, despite the circumstances" she grinned a little.
They promised to watch each others backs back then, he kept his promise, she failed him, that's what she thought. When she realized that, she started crying, she had been saved by him so often, she couldn't even count, but she had not even have the power, the "GUTS" she thought, to put him out of his misery, to do him one last service, one at all, to give him redemption. The body of the man she cared the most about, right after her parents of course,
was there, held "alive" by a satanic force. She got sick by only thinking of it.

"It's all your fault, you should have stayed up in that tree house" she accused herself.
The poor girls mind was all messed up, as she finally arrived at the train, she couldn't spot anyone nearby, no Omid, no Christa, nobody. Lee had told her that they would be waiting there for her, but they weren't, they weren't... had they left her? Had they even made it that far? Was their way cut off, or were their heads? She didn't know, for all she knew: she was at point zero again, she had no supplies, no shelter, no knight in shining armor, nothing, same as months ago, when Lee stumbled upon her.
She pinched her eyes together, and let off a waft of exhaustion, of tiredness, of guilt and annoyance, she looked up in the dark, gray sky, in movies that reassured the characters, but it didn't help, there was nobody and nothing to reassure her now.

She approached the boxcar slowly, keeping her guard up, but didn't find anybody as expected. She didn't bother to go and search the drivers cabin, because she didn't expect anyone to be there. She needed to rest, so she searched the boxcar for stuff they had left behind, because they couldn't carry everything into Savannah as she saw a Note:
She slowly read (she was still in 1st grade):

Dear Clementine,
When you find this we were here, Lee told us to meet up with you guys here,
we won't take the train unless we find you, we promise, we were about to head into
the city again, as a horde of them crept on us. I gotta go, I gotta keep this short, get outta there, we will be back.. soon! There are many of them nearby, get out of there, fast!
Clementine had that look on her face again, as when she thought there were spiders in her hair...
we left some supplies for you, be safe, and...
God bless you, god bless us all... |it was written in a hurry.

Clementine didn't realize that some time passed and that the horde moved on, she was scared, she took a quick look around and found a can of beans, it was cooked already, but cooled down. It wasn't even warm anymore, but she took it and ran.

After 20 minutes of running, that was it... she couldn't run anymore, even IF there actually was a horde after her. Her vision was clouded, she recognized something gray and boxy far ahead, though she could barely see anything. Suddenly she fell unconscious, the beans were spilled all over the dirty ground, she hadn't eaten much, she was in bad shape, an needed a break, her body told her... that way.

The unconsciousness passed, and she was just sleeping now, she urgently needed it, she deserved it, as Lee would have said. In front of her inner eye she saw his warm face, he formed the words "sweet pea" with his mouth, but the sound was delayed, like an echo.
She loved to be called that way, even though she didn't know it, she smiled. She felt safe for

the moment, Lee continued talking:" I need you to hear this, before you wake up, listen sweet pea, this ain't easy for you, hell I know, in your age I couldn't do what you are doing,
I know you blame yourself for my death... " his words were cut off by a gunshot, she rose up, checked on her gun, and saw the good food spilled... her clothes full with it, well she didn't mind it on her clothes "better than the walker... guts..." she thought disgusted.
It was the gray boxy thing it looked like a gas station from here, just along the road. "that's
where the gunshot came from" she noticed, and nervously moved towards it.
"Damn the fucker scared me!" she heard a male voice whispering when she stood by the window "shhhhhh" she heard another voice responding. "hey there" the first voice whispered "there's something!" "and what would that be hon'?" the second voice responded again. "looks human, or not human, well who am I to tell these days?" the first voice said, and the second one immediately sighed. Clem held her gun up, ready for whoever it was...
Someone jumped around the corner, and couldn't trust his eyes... "Clementine! Is that really you?" She turned around, scared as she was, she pulled the trigger, not on purpose
of course, and the shot luckily missed Omid. His eyes were spread open, his mouth either,
as Christa came around the corner, she was happy to see Clementine, and sad not to see Lee, even though she expected him... not... to be there. "I'm so, so, so, so, so lucky you're alive sweetheart!" "Yeah right, about time something good happened to us" Omid responded, Clementine was shocked, she couldn't say anything, she only felt a warm feeling deep inside, and ran upon them, and hugged them, both as strong as she could, she didn't love them as she did her parents and Lee, but she liked them very much, like an older brother, and an older sister. She was happy again. "so... where's Lee? 'round the back?" Omid asked as Christa pushed him with her elbow. "Oh I'm I- I'm sorry girl..." he stuttered, and there little Clem was crying again "he... he... he's gone... ." She had that empty look on her face, same as when she told Lee "I saw my parents", her voice was the same as well, it tore her heart apart. "It'll be alright sweetie" Christa tried to defuse the situation as best as she could, but Clem was quick to answer. "It's all my fault, it IS... if I hadn't-" "NO, that's-not-true, don't think like that" Christa interfered. "but it is" she said with a pale look in her face "He saved me uncountable times, and I... I... I..." it was hard for her, the tears ran down her cheeks "I... got him... killed" her eyes were spread open... . Christa was quick to hug her, she whispered "don't think like that, he wouldn't want you to."

After 2 intense minutes of silence, Christa released her from the hug, her jacket was all
wet, but that's just what Clem needed, 2 quiet minutes to cry, she had to let it all out. All that had happened.

Clem knew there was no time, sun was about to sink into the golden hills of Georgia, they had to think about what to do next, the city was no option any more, they didn't know what was ahead when they would follow the road, neither they knew how long the train could keep going, and where it would take them.

As if she saw Christa's question coming she answered "I-I'm... fine" before Christa even asked about how she felt, she knew, there was time to grieve just not know, they had to find shelter for the night. "Is the gas station safe?" she asked. "Nothing is safe these days hon', but we'll be fine in there for the night" Christa answered.
The place was scavenged, there wasn't much left, some chocolate and granola bars, some cans of beer and energy drinks, basically nothing that would keep them alive for too long.
The shop like shelves were almost empty, some bags of chips and candy were left, empty bottles, were laying around the whole place, the cash register was empty, well some people still didn't get that cash wasn't worth a rat's ass anymore.

There was nothing soft around, Clem had left her pillow at the train, luckily she had curly hair. "Well... sleeping's gonna be tough today..." Omid said, trying to ease their situation up.
"Sleeping... yeah right..." Clem mumbled all exhausted. The sarcasm came from Carley, even though she hadn't be long in their group somewhat around 3 months, Carley had influenced Clem very much, she was nice to her, and to Lee, she had wanted them to get close, but that never actually happened. She saw them on the balcony, how Carley kissed Lee on the cheek, the girl saw everything. Always. They all had influenced her, Carley's sarcasm, Kenny's swearing, Ben's shyness, and mostly... Lee's optimism, like her feelings for him, the trait she had from him was the strongest, once she thought about that, she felt better. Clementine was their legacy, all that those persons had left behind in this world, she was a perfect little mixture of all of them.

They knew this day was over, there wasn't much they could do now, but they figured not everyone could go to sleep tonight, someone had to stay on watch. Much things changed, but one didn't - there were still walkers, even though it seemed like god had given them the little break they deserved, they knew it wouldn't stay like that, they had to find something better the next day, the windows weren't boarded up, there were no supplies, it was bad.
Omid knew Christa needed to sleep, she was pregnant, she never mentioned it, not even to him, but hell... he knew, he knew this women for over a decade, he knew something was very different, besides that, he liked Clem a lot, but he figured Christa was what she needed now, a mother figure, someone who was good in calming people down, he was funny, and sensitive, but Christa was better with that.

"I keep watch, you need your beauty sleep, girls" he joked. How could he still? What kept this man motivated after all what happened? Him and Christa must have been lucky back
on the road, he didn't seem like he was through much yet. Christa and Clem laid in the corner, cuddling, it kept the both of them warm, and it felt good after all the stress and pain, and... everything. Christa was out after 10 minutes, sleeping like a baby, Clem though couldn't keep her eyes closed, the quiet of the night made her think, think about Lee and her parents, she knew it only would upset her, but she couldn't stop thinking, too much happened, a human being can only take so much emotional damage. Clem's limit was far behind already, she would never get over it, she would never be "alright" again. She continued thinking about much stuff, about all the good times there were in her short life,
She wanted the motel back... badly, she felt safe there, she didn't exactly like it, but it became her home after all, more than that she wanted her normal life back.

This world became a nightmare, it felt the same, it was the same, except for the fact that it was true. There was no waking up, no ending this, humanity was damned, its time limited. How long would it take until the glorious human race, the self-appointed ruler of this once beautiful world would be extinguished from the living hell it became? There was no cure, no... hope. Where did yesterday go? Why did the apocalypse break out? Had the humans angered god? Hell... wasthere a god? Hard to believe those days.

She cried herself to sleep that night... with her zombified parents' faces in mind.

It was cruel, how this world had no mercy, it extinguished life just as hope, the walkers didn't care, they didn't negotiate, that was the special thing about them, they were the most simple form of life there was, they wanted to survive just like the humans, they had to eat, they didn't eat theirs though. They ate humans, it was like millions of years ago when the dinosaurs walked our earth.

Maybe this was karma, maybe the human race got what it deserved. They always killed animals and other humans ruthlessly, now they were put in that position, in the position of the weaker. Now they had to prove, that they were the top notch of evolution.

Author's note:

Thanks for reading, I will continue on writing this story, because I just feel like it, I hope you enjoy(ed) it. Please leave a review, and give me feedback, negative feedback is just as appreciated as positive, because I really want to improve my writing.