Chapter 1
"Please don't be bad" Clementine said to herself as she raised the newly cleaned knife she had pulled out of the dead walker's rotting arm.
She cast a quick look at Sam, the dog was sitting right in front of her staring at the tin can in her left hand and wagging his tail in expectation.
Clementine stabbed the top of the can and sliced into the metal, she could smell the content of the can and as far as she could tell it didn't smell bad, in fact it made her mouth water, she vigorously repeated the stabbing and cutting motion two more times and twisted the make shift lid of the can up, to her great satisfaction she saw the can full of beans unspoiled by time, she breathed a sigh of relief "thank god".
Without further delay she scooped up a hand full of the beans and gulped them down, they didn't taste much but she hadn't eaten anything in over a day so that didn't bother her much.
She scooped up another hand full of beans and was about to put them into her mouth when her attention was drawn to Sam, the dog had started to make whimpering noises.
She looked at the starved dog, his skin was hugging his meager frame so tightly that all his ribs were visible even under his dirt covered shaggy brown fur, he was a pitiful sight.
"I guess you're pretty hungry too huh" she stretched out her hand full of beans to him "here you go" but rather than eat the offered food Sam went for the can instead, Clementine was taken completely by surprise and dropped it on the ground were some of its precious content flew out and landed on the wet ground.
Sam was on it in a second and tried to shove his snout into the can without a care for the sharp metal edges, "hey don't eat it all" Clementine exclaimed and snatched the can away from the hungry dog, Sam bared his teeth and growled.
Clementine didn't even have a chance to react before he lunched at her, his mouth opening wide and then closed just as fast on her exposed forearm, his sharp yellow teeth's tore into her flesh drawing blood.
Blinding pain shoot through Clementine left arm and she cried out in agony, it was pain unlike anything she had felt before, Sam yanked her of the log she'd been sitting on and to the ground on all four.
He released her arm but before she could do anything lunched at her again forcing her onto her back and bite down ones again on her now bleeding arm.
She screamed in pain and fear as his teeth ones again dug into her flesh, her survival instinct kicked in and she punched the dog in the head to make him release her, she punched him again and again and each time a jolt of pain went through her bleeding arm but the dog refused to let go.
Out of the corner of her eyes Clementine saw the knife and stretched out her free arm to grab it – sending a fresh jolt of pain through the other one with the movement – but the knife was out of her reach and even when she stretched her arm to the fullest she could just barely touch the grip with the tips of her fingers.
Suddenly, without warning, Sam released his grip on her and let out a whimpering howl as a streak of brown and white bored into his body with such force that he was sent sideways onto the ground.
With her arm now free Clementine managed to reach the knife and grab it, she quickly crawled backwards holding her weapon up in front of her ready for another attack from the dog.
Panting she stared in chock and fear at her former friend turned attacker as he whimpered in pain on the ground his legs kicking feebly, an arrow – that had sunk almost to the fletching – was sticking out of his side, she did not look at him for long as her attention was drawn to the sound of rustling bushes and footsteps come from her left.
A girl with a bow stepped out of the foliage that surrounded the campsite, she was maybe two or three years older than Clementine with dirty red brown hair that she had setup in a ponytail, she was dressed in a dark red hoodie with a green jacket, worn jeans and a pair of black and white shoes.
As Clementine took in her appearance the girl notched an arrow into her bow, Clementine's eyes widened in fear as she saw the girl draw the string back, raised the bow and took aim, with a twang the arrow was sent flying, it made a swooshing sound as it passed through the air and embedded itself in Sam's head with a meaty thunk, ending the dog's suffering.
Clementine stared at the dead dog and felt to her own surprise sad, yes Sam had attacked her but he had been without human interaction and starving out in the wilderness for a long time and that was bound to make a dog go wild, he probably thought that she was trying to deny him the food he so desperately needed when she snatched the can away from him.
The sound of approaching footsteps made her remember the she wasn't alone and in potential danger, she turned her head so fast that it made her neck crack and raised her knife warningly, the girl stopped and they eyed each other warily, Clementine's yellow against the girl's green.
Clementine's mind was racing through her options, the only weapon she had was her short knife and it was only good for close combat and the girl was too far away for that, her left arm was wounded and bleeding, it would be almost useless to her in a fight and she had hardly eaten anything for a whole day – a very eventful day to boot, bandits, walkers, almost drowning in a river and attacked by a starved dog - so she was tired and weak.
The girl on the other hand was armed with a bow and arrows and she probably had more weapons on her that Clementine couldn't see, she was also older, bigger and without a doubt stronger then Clementine, she did look a bit winded as if she had been running but not exhausted and she had no visible wounds.
If the two of them fought now then Clementine would definitely lose, seeing that she had chance of winning Clementine threw the knife away, raised her hands and lowered her head in defeat, if the girl wanted to kill her she would have done so already of that Clementine was sure, no she was most likely just like the one that had shot Omid, a thief who would just rob her – not that she had anything worth stealing – then leave her be, hopefully "you can lower your arms, you're not my prisoner or anything" the girl said a bit nonchalantly "I'm not going to hurt you".
Clementine raised her head and gave the girl a doubtful look before she lowered her arms, now that she was closer Clementine noticed features on the girl she hadn't seen before, like that her cheeks and nose was covered in freckles and that she had a short scar that went diagonal across her right eyebrow.
"You alright?" the red haired girl asked, the question as well as the concern Clementine heard in the girl's voice took her by surprise but before she could utter a single word the girl saw her bleeding arm and whispered the word "fuck".
Clementine looked down at her arm and grimaced, Sam's teeth had torn up a long ugly gash in her forearm, the wound was bleeding profusely and she knew that it needed to be treated and bandaged quickly to avoid infection and blood loss, she was already feeling a bit light headed.
The other girl shouldered the bow and crouched down next to her "here, let me take a look at it" Clementine stared warily at her for a few seconds but since she wasn't in a position to reject help she stretched out her arm to the girl who took it gingerly "damn, he really did a number on you huh" she said and bite her lower lip.
"How bad is it?" Clementine asked, she had never been wounded like this before so she wasn't completely sure what needed to be done, stitching most likely "that's going to suck".
"Your arm's a mess, luckily for you I have everything we need to fix you up right here" she said and unslung her backpack, Clementine eyed it with rising hope, could she be this lucky?
"What's your name?" the brunette asked as she shoved her hand into the backpack and started to rummage around, "Clementine".
"I'm Ellie" she said just as a cold wind swept through the campsite, the cold was made even worse for Clementine whose clothes was still damp from her time in the river, she shuddered, "you cold?" Clementine answered with a nod "I fell in the river last night and I haven't fully dried yet".
"Holy shit" Ellie said sounding much more concerned, she pulled out what looked like a pink, cream and brown colored jacked that had been crumpled into a ball and placed it on the ground, she gave Clementine a friendly smile "you can wear this after we have fixed you up, it's a bit big for you but it's better than freezing right?"
Clementine looked at the jacket and then at the girl "why are you helping me?" she asked, Ellie stopped rummaging around in her backpack and an awkward silence followed before she finally said "what scares you the most" she asked and turned to look at Clementine who wasn't sure whether she should answer her question or demand an answer to her own.
Ellie didn't wait for her to answer however "the thing that scares me the most is being by myself, all alone" she had a hunted look on her face like she was remembering something very painful.
Clementine knew that fear, it was the same fear that she herself had felt when she hadn't found Crista and Omid by the train station in Savannah, the same fear she had felt when she had woken up at the side of the river, that she would be all alone in a world full of the walking dead with no one to talk to but herself and no one there to help her when she needed it, "and now it's happened, I…I don't have a group, not anymore" Ellie said and there was no mistaking the fear and pain in her voice.
"I'm sorry" Clementine didn't know anything else to say.
"Yeah, so am I" Ellie said and went back to rummaging in her backpack.
After a bit more digging she pulled up a green bag and unzipped it, when Clementine saw what it contained she couldn't stop her jaw from dropping, the bag was full to the brim with bandages, syringes, needles, medicines bottles and many other things that Clementine could only guess the medical purpose of.
"Where did you get that?" she asking in astonishment, "oh I picked it up from a stalker I killed, I think he was an army medic or something" Ellie shrugged "he wasn't going to use it" she answered offhandedly as if they were discussing the weather.
Clementine's forehead wrinkled "stalker? You mean the walking dead?" the other girl nodded and pulled out a bottle and a piece of clean cloth "yeah, you know because they follow you wherever you go and there is always one around somewhere, what do you call them?"
"Walkers" Ellie nodded and unscrewed the top of the bottle and placed the cloth to it "it's as good a name as any I guess makes more sense than some of the other names I have heard" she tipped it over and held it there for two seconds before tipping it back.
"This is going to sting a lot" she warned before she dabbed the cloth against the wound, Clementine's hissed as the new needle like pain stabbed at her arm where the cloth touched.
"Damn that sucks" she hissed and took deep breath, "I'm assuming you haven't survived out here on your own since the outbreak started" Ellie said and dabbed another spot of the wound "so where's your group?"
"I don't really have one either, I was with a woman, Christa" Clementine hissed through clenched teeth, "where's she now?" Ellie looked around as if expecting Christa to walk into the ruined campsite, a heavy lump formed in Clementine's throat, it took her several seconds to reply "we got separated when bandits attacked us yesterday".
Clementine hadn't been entirely sure what kind of reaction Ellie would have to her words but she had not expected anger to be one of them, "welcome to the club" she said with a voice so bitter it could curdle milk.
Clementine stared at her in surprise, "bandits attacked your group to?" Ellie nodded her face grim, she put the bottle and cloth back in the bag.
"Two days ago" she pulled out a small package and another ball of cloth, "we were heading west through the forest when one of our trucks broke down, Bill and Frank almost had it running again when we were attacked" she opened the package and pulled out a curved needle and thread.
"Fuckers came out of nowhere and opened fire on us" she said angrily "the others tried to organize and fight them off but we never stood a chance it was a fucking massacre" she put her hands on the younger girl's shoulders, "It'll be easier if you lay down" she said a bit sharply and pushed her down on her back, "we had little choice but to run for it and in the confusion I got separated from the others" she took Clementine's wounded arm and lay it gently on the balled up jacket so it wouldn't touch the ground.
"I'm sorry…how…how many do you thing eh…" Ellie heaved a deep sigh "I don't know how many of us made it, I've been wandering these woods since the attack but I haven't seen anyone" she held up the ball of cloth in front of Clementine's face "open your mouth" Clementine gave her a dubious look "why?"
"Stalkers are attracted to sounds, this will make sure that you don't make so much noise when you scream now open your mouth" feeling a bit insulted by Ellie's assumption that she would scream in pain Clementine considered protesting, to tell Ellie that she was not going to scream, that she was tough and that she had been hurt before and she could take a bit of pain, but one look at the curved needle and then at her wounded arm and she thought better of it.
It was a very odd and uncomfortable feeling having a mouth full of cloth, not to mention the taste was horrible, Clementine tried not to think about where it might have been "bite down on it hard and try not to swallow" the brunette advised "and try not to move if you can" she placed the edge of the needle against the skin "alright…here we go" she said sounding a bit too nervous for Clementine's liking.
She winced when the needle penetrated her skin, the pain was even worse when the needle exited the side of the gash and pierced into the raw flesh on the other side and she screamed like she had never done before and her eyes filled with tears.
She screamed and cried until her throat was raw and her tears had dried up and despite her best attempt she could not keep her arm still, this caused her even more pain when her movement made Ellie missed her mark and accidentally push the needle deep into her arm.
It felt like it took forever and she had rarely been as relieved as when she heard Ellie say "there, just need to bandage it up and we're done".
Clementine shakily sat up and pulled the cloth out of her mouth, she took a long deep breath of fresh air then she spat several times in order to get the taste out of her mouth without much success.
When she was done she studied her now sewed up arm, she was no expert at stitching but she thought Ellie had done a fairly good job, her stitches were much better than the ones Clementine herself had done when Crista had taught her.
Ellie held out a roll of bandages to her "do you need my help or can you do it yourself?" Clementine took the offered bandages with her good hand "I can do it, I'm not completely helpless you know" she said, Ellie gave her wide smile then grabbed her backpack and bow and walked over to Sam and started to pull out the arrows from the dead dog's body.
As she bandaged up her arm Clementine thought about her situation and how lucky she had been to meet someone as kind and sharing as Ellie, most people now days would have focus on survival – in other word stealing what she had – over helping her.
When she was done she looked up at the crouching Ellie and – as a side note saw confirmation of her earlier suspicion that Ellie had more weapons on her in the form of the handle of a gun sticking out of the back of her pants – what she saw made her jaw drop open.
Ellie was slowly and methodically flaying the hide from Sam's body, "what are you doing" she blurted out incredulously, "what does it look like? I'm skinning the dog" Ellie said without taking her eyes away from her work, "why?" Clementine asked with perhaps a bit of outrage in her voice.
"When was the last time you ate fresh meat?" Ellie asked, again not turning to look at her but continued to skin the dog "and try to keep your voice down" she added as an afterthought.
The question took Clementine by surprise and she had to think for a bit, when was the last time she had eaten fresh meat? Crista had managed to catch some kind of weasel yesterday but they never got the fire hot enough to cook it before the bandits showed up, there was that rabbit that they ate maybe two days ago? Or was it four? She wasn't sure.
Ellie seemed to sense Clementine's uncertainty "food is scares and fresh meat is even rarer so we have to eat whatever kind of it we can get our hands on nowadays, even if we don't like it" a horrible feeling gripped Clementine at the sound of those words, "whatever kind of meat we can get our hands on" she repeated in a whisper and the memories of the St John's and their dairy farm flooded into her mind, the meat they had tried to feed them that night, the human meat that had come from one of their group members – she could still see him in her nightmares sometimes, crawling into the dinner room pale and legless leaving a smeary trail of blood in his wake – and then there was the barn with the blood covered back room and the freezer, the salt lick, the crushed head.
A cold shiver went through her that had nothing to do with the cold, was Ellie a cannibal? Was that why she had saved Clementine? To keep her as extra rations, she looked for her knife in the direction she had thrown it but it was gone, did she take it when I wasn't paying attention? She looked back at the red haired girl and her unease increased, she could try to run away but she would probably not get far if Ellie gave chase.
The rational part of her brain told her not to jump to conclusions, there was a chance that she had misunderstood her, well there was only one way to find out, she swallowed then took a deep calming breath and spoke "even other people".
"Even other people what?" Ellie asked as she pealed of more skin from the dog "eat whatever kind of meat we can get our hands on…even other people" Clementine repeated, Ellie's head whipped around so fast that Clementine could hear her neck crack, her face was pale and she had a look of shock on it, she didn't say anything just stared at Clementine with eyes wide in horror.
"Was that what you meant by 'whatever kind of meat we can get even if we don't like it'?" she asked her fingers digging into the trampled earth and closed them into a fist, if Ellie decided to attack she would try to throw the earth into her eyes as a distraction, that would buy her a head start.
"What the…hell no" Ellie shouted ignoring her own warning of keeping their voices down "that's fucking sick, we're the hell did you get that fucked up idea from" she continued sounding angry and revolted by the very thought, Clementine on the other hand felt relief, she had misunderstood her.
In order to explain to Ellie how she had got that "fucked up idea" she told her about the St John's and what had happened to her and her group on the dairy farm, how the St John's had pretended to be kind and offer them protection and food at their farm, how they had trick some of them into eating parts of one of their own and how they had locked them up in the freezer and how they had escaped.
As Clementine told her story Ellie finished skinning the dog – Clementine had tried not to look at her whiles she did it – disembowel it and cut – what little meat it had on it – to pieces and started a fire by using some of the boxes and papers from the broken Volkswagen bus.
When she began roasting the meat Ellie had had a hungry look in her eyes every time she looked at it but when the story was finished it had been replaced by revolution "man…tricking people to eat their own friends, that's seriously fucked up" Ellie said.
"Yeah" Clementine agreed trying to look at everything except the meat crackling over the fire between the two girls, "you know, I don't feel like eating meat right now" Ellie said, Clementine nodded she didn't feel like eating meat ether.
Ellie pulled out a battered plastic lunch box from her backpack and although there hadn't been much meat on Sam it was enough to fill the box to the brim, she replaced the box in the pack and pulled out two cans, two spoons and a can opener, ones they were both opened she showed a spoon in each and handed one to Clementine.
"Pea soup" Clementine read of the label, it looked more like yellow brown mush to her eyes then soup with a few peas stuck in here and there, "yeah, I know it doesn't look like it but if you boil it in water it turns to soup but I don't have anything to boil it in or enough water to spare for that matter" Ellie said.
Ones they heated it up the pea soup turned out to be quite good even without the boiled water, they ate it in silence – Clementine was too busy shoving the mushy soup into her mouth to speak and it didn't seem that Ellie want to talk just in case the subject turned gruesome and ruined her appetite again.
When they were both done they threw the empty cans into the oil barrel that the previous owners of the camp had turned into a makeshift garbage bin, Ellie took a look around but quickly came to the conclusion that the camp held nothing of value, after that they put out the fire and left.
By then Clementine was feeling a bit better, her arm still hurt and she still felt a bit cold but at least her stomach was full and her clothes had mostly dried from the fire plus she now had Ellie jacket to help keep her warm, it was a bit too big for her but that didn't trouble her much.
"Were are we going" Clementine asked the older girl beside her, Ellie was scanning the forest and did not look at her when she answered "I set out some traps earlier and I want to check on them" she said and stepped over a fallen tree "after that's done I don't know" she shrugged "get the hell out of this forest sounds like a good idea".
"And then what" Clementine asked a little more hesitant this time, she wasn't sure she wanted to leave the forest just yet, Crista could still be around and if she could Clementine would find her "head west" Ellie answered.
"What's out west?" Clementine asked, Ellie suddenly stopped and held up her hand for silence, both girls scanned the trees but neither saw nor heard anything but the wind rustling the trees, after a few seconds they both relaxed, "I thought I heard something but it most have been my imagination, what were you saying? Oh right out west, there's this big camp in Jackson County Wyoming, that's where my group were heading before we were attacked".
Clementine frowned, her geography wasn't the best – she had only been in first grade when this whole mess started – so she wasn't sure how far it was to Wyoming "that's…a long way from here right?" she asked to which she received a nod of confirmation from Ellie "about half the country from here".
"Why were you going there instead of north to Wellington" Clementine asked, Ellie gave her a perplexed look "Wellington?" Clementine nodded "yeah, it's this big camp up in Michigan, at least that's what Crista told me".
"Never heard of it" Ellie said, she removed her backpack and pulled out a small map book from one of its compartments, "just how much does she have in that thing" Clementine wondered as Ellie skimmed through the book until she reached Michigan.
After several minutes of staring into the book and turning a few page Ellie said "are you sure it was in Michigan? I can't find any Wellington there at all" a sliver of fear crawled up Clementine's spine at those words, "no it has to be there, you must have missed it" she took the book from Ellie who did not resist or protest, her golden eyes scanned every inch of the maps of Michigan and found nothing.
Had Clementine heard wrong or had Crista been wrong or was there no Wellington to begin with, had they been traveling north all this time for nothing, Clementine's heart sank in her chest.
Ellie took the book from her unresisting hands and put her hand on Clementine's shoulder, "hey" Clementine looked up at the older girl, "since I left Boston I have seen several camps" she said and closed the book and put it back in her pack "and most of those was located far from any city or town so they weren't on any maps".
Clementine stared at her stupidly then she mentally kicked herself, of course how could she have been so stupid, Wellington most have been built after the outbreak so it wouldn't be on any map, then another thought struck her that lowered her spirit again, even if they got to Michigan how were they going to find it?
Clementine was brought out of her wondering by Ellie patting her on the back, "come on let's go check on those traps, we can figure out where we should go later" the older girl said and turned and walked off, Clementine stared at her back for several seconds then she hurried to catch up.
For a time, they walked in silence watching their surroundings for anything that could be a threat, Clementine hadn't really been in the mood for silence, she wanted to talk but she wasn't sure what they could talk about that wouldn't be a painful subject for the other girl, but then again what wasn't a painful subject nowadays.
Before she could ask any question however Ellie broke the silence "hey Clem" the younger girl's golden eyes look up at the other girl "I never asked, where are you from?"
"Atlanta" she answered, "damn you've walked a long way" Ellie said sounding very impressed, Clementine only nodded, it was true she had walked a long way to get where she was now, but the miles had come at a cost and Clementine's friends had paid the price for her with their lives.
There was a short silence before Ellie asked another question "when you talked about those St John's bastards you never mentioned your parents, did they…" Clementine looked down at the ground, "they went away on vacation and never came back".
"Well…they might still be" Ellie started to say but Clementine cut her off "they're not, my group and I went to Savannah to find them" that wasn't entirely true, most of them had gone to find a boat but there was no point in dragging up that detail.
"It was only after most of my group was killed that I found them with a herd of walkers" Clementine looked up at Ellie who looked sympathetically back at her "sorry" she said and Clementine knew she meant it "so am I" Clementine said and she whipped her eyes "what about you? Where are your parents?"
"Well mom died shortly after I was born and dad left her long before that – the asshole – I don't know what happened to him" she shrugged "he's probably dead, I grew up in an orphanage".
"In Boston?"
"Yup"
"What was it like…living in an orphanage I mean?" Clementine had a difficult time imagining what it would be like growing up in a building full of other kids and without ever meeting her parents, Ellie shrugged "it wasn't too bad I suppose – considering the hell we live in now – I mean I had clean clothes, a warm bed and four meals a day" she looked thoughtful for a few seconds "school sucked though, most of the older kids were assholes and my roommate snored like you wouldn't believe" a cartoon like image of Ellie laying in the lower part of a bunk-bed with bloodshot eyes and a pillow pressed against her head formed in Clementine's mind, she giggled, Ellie gave her a smile, she probably thought that Clementine found her complaints funny.
After a short pause in which Clementine stopped giggling she asked "what was it like during the outbreak in Boston?" Ellie's posture stiffened slightly "probably the same as it was in Atlanta" she answered in a tone that told Clementine that she didn't want to talk about it but Clementine was curious so she said "I lived a bit outside of Atlanta so I don't know what happened in the city".
Ellie sighed "you sure you want to know, it's not a nice story" Clementine nodded that yes she wanted to know, she had shared a bit of her story – one of the worst part – after all it was only fair that Ellie did the same "you can give me the short version".
She looked more than a bit hesitant but then said "alright I'll try" with the barest hint of reluctance in her voice and she launched into her tale about how the walkers slowly appeared, how they caused panic and confusion, how scared and paranoid cops started shooting anyone they suspect to be a walker, many times creating more walkers, demonstration against these random police shootings quickly turns into violent riots and shops and houses were looted and burned.
The riots became breading grounds for walkers and the infection quickly spread out of control, within a few days the walkers outnumbered the police more than twenty to one and decimated what was left of their numbers to the point that they ceased to exist, without the police to enforce law and order the city descended into complete anarchy.
The majority of the citizens had by then tried to flee the city but many did not get out in time and those that was left formed into gangs and went to war against other survivors for resources that became harder and harder to get.
"And you were stuck in all that?" Clementine interrupted her at one point when she described how two gangs had ended up in a fire fight over a few cans of food in a corner store a stone's throw away from the orphanage, Ellie nodded "didn't you try to get out?"
"By the time the ones in charge of the orphanage decided to evacuate us out of the city it was too late, everyone and their mothers had had the same idea and due to stalker attacks all the roads were clogged full with abandoned vehicles, there was no way out" she said grimly.
Clementine thought for a second "what about boats or trains?" Ellie shook her head, "there was no boats left and none of us knew how to drive a train plus we would need to walk through a city full of stalkers and trigger happy gangs to get to either, anyway about a month later most of the stalkers had left the city and then what was left of the national guard and the military arrived, by that time all but a hand full of groups had been eaten by stalkers or killed by other survivors".
"And you were a part of one of those groups".
"Well I wasn't really much a part of the group, I was more like…under their protection, the leader Marlene knew my mom so when she found me and a few other kids – all the adults had either died or abandoned them and most of the kids had been killed during food runs – still alive in the orphanage she took us to her camp to protect us".
"What happened then? After the military came I mean" Clementine asked, Ellie's mouth twisted into a scowl and she continued her tale of how the military under the command of general Spears with their superior numbers and weapons swept in and took command of what was left of the city and gave all the survivors a choice, either submit to their rule, leave the city or be destroyed, one group refused them and they were quickly made examples of, after that most groups submitted – those who didn't left the city in a hurry – and was forced to surrender all their weapons, food and other equipment to the military.
General Spears then ordered a huge portion of the survivors that was physically able – even children – to gather material and construct a barricade along highway 93 from McConnell park to Columbus Park making it a quarantine zone to keep the walkers and other survivors out, the rest of them was ordered to plowed up all the parks and other open areas and turn them into farms so as to "grow our future" as Spears called it.
But Spears building plans wasn't finished not by a long shot, the barricade turned out to be nothing more than a temporary defense for as soon as it was finished Spears ordered that a huge concrete wall with guard towers and a spike filled moat be built behind the barricade in order to make the zone into a fortress.
Another of Spears projects was to get the local power plants up and running again and to create a fishing fleet so that they could get food from the sea and – to Marlene's and many others outrage – he also started a mandatory military school so as to train – "brainwash" as Marlene called it – the next generation into loyal citizens and soldiers.
But all those plans paled in comparison to his most ambitious idea, to extend the barricade all the way to the Charles river in the north so that he could get more land to farm food for his future army and then continue the expansion to the rest of the city, he planned to do this by expanding it gradually over time and set up checkpoints in key positions both as a means to control the population as well as to isolate any walker outbreaks that might occur inside the QZ.
To keep the growing population in check – for many smaller groups of survivors sought refuge inside the now well protected QZ – Spear preying on their fears of the walkers and bandits and with the help of propaganda he tightened his grip on the city, most were willing to surrender the freedom they had had in the old world for protection in the new one and only a few dared to speak out against him and his regime, those few demanded that Spears step down and democracy be restored, many of them were arrested not long afterwards and was never seen again.
But not all of Spears enemies were taken however, Marlene and a few others that managed to elude capture formed a rebel group inside the QZ calling themselves the fireflies, they started to undermine Spears military rule by almost any means necessary, after two years of planning the fireflies had gathered enough information, manpower and weapons to try to assassinate Spears and take control of the QZ – which had now grown to more than twice its previous size – but they were betrayed by one of their own who informed Spears about their plans, Spears responded with brutal efficiency, his forces attacking almost every single firefly hideout in the QZ and killed everyone there.
This devastating attack forced Marlene and the few people she had left to leave the QZ through a secret tunnel they had built, Ellie and a few others - who had either ended up on Spears shit list or just didn't want to live under his tyranny - joined them and they headed south.
"We picked up a few people and cars along the way, this one guy, Joel, said that his brother was a part of a big camp up in Jackson County so we decided to go there, things were looking up until we reached this goddamn forest" she finished and kicked a stone on the ground, it turned out that the stone was rooted to the ground so rather than sending it flying Ellie hurt her foot.
Ellie was in a bad mood after that, partly because Clementine hadn't been able to stop herself from laughing at Ellie as she hopped around on one foot cursing at the top of her voice, Clementine didn't think it a good idea to talk to her after that so the rest of the walk was spent almost in complete silence.
The traps were not as close as Clementine had hoped and it took them about half an hour to get to the first one, to Ellie's annoyance – which she showed by cursing – and Clementine's disappointment it turned out that it was empty.
It took them almost another hour of trudging through the forest to get to the second one - which also turned out to be empty - and the third which held the bloody remains off a squirrel – the victim of a walker or some other predator.
By the time they were heading to the fourth and last trap Clementine wasn't feeling too good, in fact she felt ill, she was burning up and freezing at the same time and she was also feeling light headed.
"Are we there yet" she panted and whipped sweat from her brow, Ellie whose mood – that had been foul ever since the stone incident – had darkened even more since they found the dead squirrel and had been too busy brooding to noticed that Clementine was lagging behind said "we're almost there" over her shoulder, at that moment Clementine stumbled on a tree root and fell down on all four.
When Ellie saw what had happened she was at Clementine's side in an instant and helped her into a sitting position against a rock "you okay?" she asked her voice concerned "yeah, I'm fine, just a bit tired" Clementine answered groggily, Ellie's frown at her and placed her palm against Clementine's forehead "no you're not, you're burning up" Ellie looked at her critically and then at the surrounding area, when she didn't see any walkers she unslung her backpack, after a little digging she pulled out a half full bottle of water and a white pill "for the fever" she said, Clem took it and washed it down with the water, "we'll take a break here so you can rest for a bit" Ellie said as Clem whipped her mouth on her sleeve.
"No, I can rest when we have checked the last trap" Clementine said and tried to stand up only to slump back to the ground, Ellie put her hands on Clem's shoulders when she tried to stand up a second time and pushed her down "this isn't the fucking time to be stubborn" she said sternly "this isn't the old days were you can just shrug this kind of thing off, you could die from this and if you do then I'll have too…" she trailed off with a look of pain on her face, she didn't have to finish the sentence, they both knew what she had left unsaid.
"You have to shoot me, honey" Clementine's heart jolted in her chest as the horrible memory from Savannah forced itself to the forefront of her mind, Lee sitting on the floor with his only remaining hand handcuffed to a radiator, his skin unnaturally pale and sickly, his brown eyes staring pleadingly at her through the grogginess of the infection that was slowly taking his life.
Clementine felt tears in her eyes and all the fight went out of her, shooting Lee had been the hardest and most painful thing she had ever done in her short life, it had been that moment when she fully realized just how hellish the world had become and that the only way for her to survive in it was to harden her heart and never make any mistakes ever again, Ellie had probably had her own moment like that and Clementine didn't want her to have to go through it again.
"You're right, I'll rest" Clem conceded whipping her eyes, Ellie looked a bit surprised but pleased, she gave her a smile and looked like she was about to say something but Clem spoke before she could "while I do you should go and check on the trap" Ellie's smile turned into a scowl "fuck that, I'm not leaving you here alone".
"If your trap has caught something you need to get to it before something else does" she said a little more seriously, Ellie brooded over her words for several seconds – pacing back and forth and bitting her lower lip – then she pulled out her gun and handed it to Clementine "you know how to use one of these?!" it was more of a statement then a question, Clem nodded "good, I'll be back as fast as I can" she said and jogged off.
Clementine watched her as she disappeared into the bushes, when she was out of sight she slumped back against the rock, her arms and legs felt like they were made of jelly and now that she was sitting down she found it difficult to keep her eyes open, she was so tired.
In an attempt to stop herself from dosing off she inspected the gun she had been given, it wasn't a big model which made it perfect for her young hands, she took out the magazine for inspection, it held four 9mm bullets with one already in the chamber, she put the magazine back into the gun.
With nothing else to occupy herself with her gaze drifted over the area for signs of threats but she saw nothing but bushes and trees, she did this several more times over the next couple of minutes but still saw nothing and the more she did it the heavier her eyelids felt.
She leaned her head back against the rock, her eyelid drooped shut but she immediately opened them again, she knew that she had to stay awake, if she fell asleep and a walker came she was as good as dead, she tried to keep her eyes open but she was just so tired and in the end they closed and her world went black.
She woke up with a start by the sound of rustling bushes and running footsteps, even with her mind still a bit groggy from her slumber she instinctively grabbed Ellie's gun and shakily raised it in the direction of the sound, the next second Ellie burst out from between two trees running at full speed towards Clementine with what looked like a small deer slung over her shoulders.
"Come on get up, we got to go" she panted and grabbed the smaller girl by the arm and pulled her to her feet's and dragged her behind her, Clementine was about to ask what was wrong when Ellie said "stalkers, a fucking bunch of them and their coming this way".
It was only then that Clementine heard the raspy growl and moaning sound coming from the same direction that Ellie had, Clementine almost stumbled when she looked back and saw a fat walker – its entrails was hanging out of its torn up belly and it looked like something had clawed off half its face – accompanied by four others shambling past the rock that had been her resting place and towards them with several more stumbling their way out of some bushes.
After a couple of minutes of running they stopped, Clementine was by then exhausted and out of breath, she had to lean against an nearby tree for support, next to her Ellie was looking back the way they had come "I think…we lost them" she said between deep breaths, her words proved to be premature however as at that moment a tall walker who was missing half of its left arm stumbled out from behind a tree, it was quickly joined by five others, how they could have missed seeing them or smelt them Clementine had no idea.
"Oh for fuck sake" Ellie exclaimed, she grabbed hold of Clementine's jacked and tried to pulled her into another run but Clementine was too exhausted to move, she didn't even manage a single steep before her legs gave out and she collapsed onto the ground almost dragging Ellie down with her, the older girl grabbed a new hold on Clementine's arm and tried to pull her onto her feet's "come on, you got to get up" Ellie shouted, Clementine tried but it was to no avail, her legs refused to support her weight.
"I…I can't" she panted, "yes you can, now get the fuck up" Ellie yelled and yanked at her arm painfully but it did no good, her legs refused to support her, Clementine saw in her peripheral vision the walkers shuffling closer, it wouldn't be long before they reached them.
With an expression of panic on her face, Ellie looked down at Clementine and then at the walkers and then back at Clementine and her face hardened, a feeling of dread and despair overtook Clementine when Ellie let go of her arm, "she's going to leave me, she's going to leave me to die so she can escape".
Clementine stared pleadingly at Ellie before the ever increasing volume of the walker's rasping moans drew her horrified attention.
Even though she was exhausted she somehow managed to find the strength to pull out the gun from her jeans and using both hands she was able shakily aim it in the direction of the closest walker although she doubted that she would be able to hit it in the head, "if you shoot you'll just draw more of them to us" Ellie said, her voice sounding very forced like she was trying not to panic herself but Clementine mind took more note of the word she had used, "us?"
The deer dropped from Ellie's shoulders and landed with a thud on the ground as she unslung her bow, she steeped in front of Clementine as a shield and with practiced efficiency she quickly nocked an arrow, drew back the string, aimed and let it fly.
The arrow burrowed deep into the one armed walker's skull, it jerked and let out a final rasping growl before it collapsed onto the ground, by then Ellie had already nocked another arrow and was aiming at the second walker, she released the string and it too collapsed.
Clementine saw Ellie take aim at another walker, like the previous two it jerked as its skull and brain was penetrated by an arrow…that entered the head from the side.
Both Ellie and Clementine whipped their heads in the direction the arrow had come from and saw two men, the younger of the two – a brown haired man dressed in an orange shirt and worn jeans who Clementine guessed was in his mid-twenties – was charging towards the walkers with a machete drawn and ready whiles the other one – a man with a clean shaved head and black goatee dressed in a green jacket and pants who looked to be in his late forties – was reloading a crossbow.
Clementine could hardly believe what she was seeing, could she be this lucky? what was the odds of getting saved twice in one day out in the middle of nowhere?
The sound of the young man's running footsteps drew the attention of two of the remaining walkers who turned to face him.
Ellie capitalized on this and let lose her arrow on the one that was still stumbling towards them, it hit it right in the left eye, its head jerked back from the force of the arrow and it almost lost its balance but to Clementine's dismay it did not fall but continued to shuffle towards them.
By then the young man had reached the other walkers and side steeping the nearest of them when it tried to grab him, he proceeded to decapitate it with one clean swing.
The other one fell less than two seconds later when the old man put an arrow in its head, by then Ellie had nocked her bow with another arrow and taken aim at the last walker who fell less than a second later with another arrow in its head.
"Is that all of them" the older of the two men asked as he walked towards them "yeah it think so" the younger man said and turned towards the two girls "are you girls al-whoa! whoa! whoa!" he exclaimed and took several steps back in shock at the sight of Ellie with her bow drawn and an arrow aimed right at him.
"Get the fuck back the both of you" she said loudly.
"Easy girl" the old man said calmly, his reloaded crossbow aimed at her.
"Look, just calm down an-" the young one began to say but Ellie cut him off "shut up pretty boy".
"Ellie what are you doing?" Clementine whispered shocked at Ellie's action, these men had helped them why was she being so hostile? "protecting us" Ellie whispered back "Clem do these two look familiar to you?" Clementine then knew what she was getting at, she studied both men for several seconds but neither of them looked familiar to her "they don't look like any of the people that attacked me and Crista" Clementine whispered back, Ellie did not lower her bow "but for all we know these guys could be their buddy's or friends to the bandits that attacked my group".
"We're not bandits, we haven't attacked anybody, we're just people trying to help" the young man said calmly.
"Yeah right, more like trying help yourself to our stuff" Ellie snorted derisively.
"Use your head girl, if we wanted you're stuff we wouldn't have helped you at all, hell we could have just let you fight them lurkers on your own and kill whoever was left standing" the old man said "we could just as easily have shoot you dead the minute we saw you but we didn't".
A tenses silence descended over the area as Ellie and Clementine pondered the man's points, it was true that if he and the other man wanted to steal their food, medicine and weapons it would be counterproductive to help them, that was of course if stealing their stuff was all they wanted.
Ellie seemed to have gotten to the same conclusion, in truth she had reached an even darker conclusion then Clementine, one she would not say out laud in front of the younger girl so instead she said "maybe but if you let the stalkers kill us you would have lost the deer as well" she jerked her head in the direction of the fawn she had unceremoniously dropped on the ground "they love fresh meat and there was a good chance one of them would have sunk its rotten teeth into it long before you could have killed them all".
The men looked at the deer and both of them looked genuinely surprised to see it "you snagged that with only a bow?" the old man asked and Clementine thought he sounded impressed "yeah, I'm a dead good shoot with a bow" Ellie said, the old man recognize the threat, he nodded his face serious ones more.
"Guys I think we should talk about this someplace else" the young man said sounding suddenly very tense, "yeah, I don't think s…" Ellie started to say but suddenly cut herself off.
The wind had changed and it brought with it the horrible odder of rotten flesh that was even more potent than the one coming from the walkers they had just killed, the smell was followed by the all to familiar rasping moans of walkers.
Looking back Clementine saw to her dismay three badly decomposed walkers shambling towards them, she also saw with rising panic that the three had brought friends a lot of friends, more then fifteen of them, far too many for them to take on even if the two men helped.
"Fucking hell" she heard Ellie murmur in a fearful voice, but her fear was nothing compared to Clementine's who unlike Ellie could not runaway but was stuck almost helpless on the ground.
"Come on we got to go" the old man shouted and grabbed Ellie by the shoulder but she shrugged him off "Clementine's exhausted, she can't walk and I'm not leaving without her" the old man grunted "Luke grab the girl and go, I'll take the deer".
The young man now identified as Luke crouched down by Clementine "come on kid we got to move" he said as he took her in his arms and with little difficulty lifted her of the ground and started running, Ellie followed right behind him with the older man – the deer slung over his shoulder – bringing up the rear.
As they ran Clementine saw several more walkers closing in from both left and right, they had undoubtedly been drawn by all the noise but most of them was to slow or too far away to be a threat, four of them did get close however but Luke and the others expertly avoided them or in the case of one – who tried to grab Ellie – was pushed to the ground.
After almost ten minutes of mad running they stopped to catch their breaths "I…I think…I think we're safe" the old man panted as he leaned himself against a tree.
"Yeah…yeah we're good" Luke said after a quick scan of the area.
He looked over at Ellie who stood doubled over breathing heavily with her hands on her knees for support "hey, you alright?" he asked.
"Yeah…" she panted "just give me a minute…fuck…I'm starting to get really fucking tired of running away from those things".
"You…and me both…kid" the old man puffed from his spot by the tree his breathing slowly going back to normal, Ellie looked over at Clementine "hey Clem, you alright?"
Clementine raised her hand into a thumbs up "just tired" she said sleepily and leaned her head against Luke's chest, his shirt felt warm and dry against her cheek and she imagined that she could hear his heart beat beneath the fabric.
After a few more seconds spent catching their breaths Luke spoke up drawing everyone's attention, "hey, with all the tension back there we didn't get a chance to introduce ourselves, I'm Luke and that's Pete" he said and nodded to his companion who gave a fatherly smile and a "hi there" to the girls.
"I'm Clementine and that's Ellie" Clementine said sleepily from her position in Luke's arms, Ellie didn't look to happy about her name being given away but didn't say anything.
"It's nice to meet you two" Luke said with a friendly smile, Clementine thought he looked like a nice guy, he certainly acted like one but then again appearances were deceiving, the St John's and the stranger had thought her that, Pete straitened up from his position by the tree and said "now that the introductions are done, how do you girls want to do this?"
Every muscle in Ellie's body tensed up at his words, when she looked up she had probably expected to see an arrow pointed strait at her but the old man hadn't move from the spot, he hadn't even tried to raise his crossbow in her direction, "we're not too far from our cabin" Pete continued calmly "if you two want to you can stay the night".
Ellie studied the old man, no doubt trying to tell if he was lying or not, his face was however unreadable and didn't give anything away to her, she turned her gaze to Luke who gave her a friendly smile, after a few seconds she looked to Clementine who stared right back at her with tired eyes, finally she looked up at the sky and the dark gray clouds that was blowing in from the east, she chewed on her lower lip then asked "what's it going cost us?"
"This deer, well most of it anyway, you'll get a good share of it I promise" Pete said and hefted the dead animal on his shoulder "and that you don't cause any trouble in the house off course" he added as an afterthought.
Ellie looked back at Clementine who after a few seconds gave a weak nod, Ellie bit her lip then said "alright it's a deal but if you try to double-cross us I'll take you with me, go it" the old man nodded then he said "I understand you need to be careful around strangers especially these days but that's quit the hostile attitude you have there missy".
Ellie crossed her arms "bandits attacked my group two days ago and scattered us to the wind so excuse me for being "hostile"" she said heatedly, both the men shared a quick glans with each other, Pete scratched his chin "hmm…these folks that attacked you…did they mention what they were after" Ellie shook her head "no, they just started shooting at us without warning when we had stopped to repair one of our trucks".
"So you didn't hear them say or shout anything" Ellie shook her head again "no, I was too busy trying not to get my fucking head blown off" she said a little angrier that before, she also looked puzzled, she was probably wondering why he cared so much about what they could have said, she turned to Clementine "hey Clem, did the ones that attacked your group say anything?" Clementine raised her head with great reluctance from its place against Luke's chest "not really, I think they just wanted food, we were cooking some kind of weasel" she said in a voice so low it was almost a whisper then laid her head back against Luke's chest.
Luke shook his head in disbelief "they attacked you for a weasel, damn that's low" Pete's brow furrowed "hold on, you two aren't from the same group?"
"No, we just met each other a couple of hours ago" Clementine said not bothering to even move her head this time, "really" Pete's eyes wandered between the two girl several times before they settled back on Clementine "was she this distrusting to you when you met?" he asked and ignored the glare Ellie was giving him.
"No" Clementine answered, her eyelids were almost closed now, she felt like she would dose off at any second now "she saved me" the two men turned to Ellie for conformation, Ellie sighed "she was being attacked by a wild dog".
"A dog?" Pete stared at her in disbelief.
"Yes, a dog" she said exasperatedly.
"Man it's been an eternity since I last saw a dog" Luke said sounding a bit envious.
"Well, your going to have to wait a bit longer to see another one" Ellie said "I killed it".
"You killed it!" Luke exclaimed in shocked outrage, "and what would you have done if a dog attacked you?" Pete asked sounding a bit annoyed at his friend's outburst "I don't know but you don't…you don't kill dogs" Luke finished weakly with a sad look on his face, Ellie looked at him like he was an idiot, "you do if it tries to bit your fucking arm off, what part of it attacked her didn't you understand" Luke didn't answer.
"Come on, the sun's setting and it ain't a good idea to be out here in the dark" Pete said, "we have a doctor at our camp that can take a look at Clementine" he turned in the direction of the setting sun "this way" and with that they all started walking with the old man in the lead.
After about two minutes of walking Luke toke up a position next to Ellie who was keeping a close eye on her surroundings, most likely spying for walkers "hey" he said his voice ones again calm, Ellie threw him a quick sideways look then looked back at the forest.
"I'm sorry about my outburst back there" he said apologetically "my family used to own a dog before all this and…well I have a soft spot for them", Ellie didn't respond to his words but kept looking around, "did you have any pets before this?" he asked trying to get a conversation going, no doubt in an attempt to ease the tension between them but ones again Ellie didn't respond "I hate to break this to you kid but I'm an expert at talking to girls who don't want to talk to me" he said and smiled.
"Yeah you got plenty of practice" Pete said over his shoulder with a grin as they headed up a small hill, Ellie covered her mouth in an attempt to stifle her laughter, Luke gave Pete a deadpan look "thanks Pete" he said dryly, Pete's grin widened "anytime".
"And there it is" Pete said when they had reached the top, before them the forest opened up into a wide circular clearing, in the middle of it stood a two story high wooden cabin, roughly two years had passed since the dead started walking and whiles the rest of the world had gone to hell in a hand-basket this place looked like it had remained completely untouched, all the windows and doors were whole and the white paint on the frames didn't look that old, the place gave off a feeling of safety and in the light of the setting sun it looked even more serene, "whoa" Ellie murmured in amazement as she took in the sight before her.
"It's pretty neat huh?" Luke asked.
"Yeah, yeah it is" Ellie answered awestruck "what do you think Clem?"
But Clementine didn't answer her, long deep breathes could be heard coming from the small girl in Luke's arms, she was fast asleep.
Wow my first fanfiction ever and it took an eternity to make, hopefully the next chapter will be done quicker.
Please leave a review and tell me what you think and if you have any advice for me I would gladly take it.