DINNER RUN
Christa scanned the path for any footprints that would signal walkers aimless movement.
"None so far." Christa sighed in relief as she walked a few steps ahead of Clementine.
Even though a month had passed, the events of the pit-stop, where she held Omid until his last breath, stayed fresh in her mind. She didn't mean to hold a grudge at the girl trailing behind her, but she had to be mad at somebody. And with the girl who shot him dead by her own hand, Clementine had been the only one left alive to blame.
If she had just held on to the gun, Christa thought as she glanced back at Clementine with a grimace.
She looked down at her belly and rubbed it when she felt it kick. The gladness that the baby would be born sometime soon had been mixed with the fear of raising it alone amidst the ruins of a world that she no longer knew. She had to find a safe place, as if that even existed anymore.
"Keep an eye out for any place to stop for a little while," Christa said.
"I see a stream through the trees to the right," Clementine said.
Christa looked to where Clementine had been pointing. A small almost overgrown path descended toward flowing fresh water and a fallen tree, providing a perfect place to rest and refill. She nodded and then waved for the girl to lead the way.
"Fill up those water bottles you have in your backpack. I need to sit down for a moment," Christa walked over to the log once they got near the stream.
"Okay." Clementine removed the small plastic bottles from her pink, flowered pack and walked to the water without saying another word.
As Christa sat down, she put her head in her hands and closed her eyes. Her mind drifted back to when she had been standing by the door to the restroom and heard the gunshot come from inside. As if awakening from a nightmare, which it was, she opened her eyes and looked back toward the stream. Clementine was nowhere to be found.
"Clementine." Christa looked one way and then the other as she headed away from the log. "Where are you?"
She reached the edge of the narrow stream where a female walker with missing legs and dark skin tried to pull herself toward her through the water. Christa traipsed through the ankle-high water and stomped on the walker's head, crushing her skull. She stared at her for a moment, imagining that it was the girl who shot Omid staring back. After it was no longer a threat, Christa looked up the path behind the walker, but saw no footprints leading past the stream, at least not the size that a young girl would make.
"Clementine didn't run past here, so where did she go?" Christa reached back and rubbed her tense neck.
She crossed back over the stream and saw small footsteps leading from the stream into the forest.
As she followed the tracks at a hurried pace, Christa looked up at a sound in the brush. A walker approached from the woods near a rise leading back into the forest. Christa raised her gun, but then lowered it when she realized that he didn't see her. As it began to look her way, it made a sudden turn-about and started back toward the woods.
"Why would it be going back that way, did it hear something? Oh no, Clementine." Christa and followed the walker into the brush.
At the sound of Christa's footsteps on the fallen leaves and twigs that littered the ground, the walker looked back with empty, hungry eyes. Christa crouched down behind a large rock and raised the gun. Click.
"No bullets, are you kidding?" Christa whispered under her breath and shook her head. As she hid behind the rock, she noticed out of the corner of her eye a small camp hidden among the trees.
She looked down to grab a rock, but when she turned toward the walker once more, it had disappeared among the trees. As she followed it, Christa looked around and saw Clementine hunched down trying to catch something in the brush on the forest floor. The walker shambled forward toward the girl. As it got closer, Clementine straightened up and looked back as it approached. Christa threw the rock and it struck, but did no damage, although it halted its progress. She crouched down and snuck up behind it, smashing its head with her gun.
"Get to the campsite and hide." Christa pointed to the right.
Clementine nodded and ran off. Christa reached into a pack around her waist and found two bullets. Christa reloaded the gun, but stumbled back when the walker grabbed her leg. A shot went off and grazed the walker's head, but the second aimed shot hit it directly in the forehead. After it went down Christa hurried through the forest, since she knew the sound could attract more.
She hurried up the incline toward the campsite, but she didn't see Clemente anywhere. The campsite had three one-person tents situated around a campfire that had been long dead. A walker had a tent stake through his head, although Christa could tell that it had been done before today. Whoever stayed here had left in a hurry or so she hoped, she hated to imagine the alternative. "This area looks clear of walkers, but where is that girl. I hope she's in one of the tents."
"Clementine." Christa opened the flap of a grey tent, but besides a sleeping bag and some magazines, it was empty.
"Where are you?" Christa backed out of the tent. She wanted to yell, but said it mostly to herself in case of walkers in the surrounding forest.
"Please let Clementine be in here." Christa opened the flap.
When she looked in the tent, Christa saw the decay in the blond girl's ashen face and the look of hunger in her dead eyes as she looked up. The walker pulled on a tent pole she had been tied to, her hunger giving her a more powerful determination to get loose. As Christa reached behind her to grab a rock, the blonde girl pulled hard until the tent came crashing down around them. Christa backed out of the tent to avoid getting trapped underneath.
She could see the walker crawling underneath the tent like a large snake until the girl's head popped out from underneath until. Christa backed up until she reached the firepit and lost her balance and fell backward on her bottom.
"Clementine." Christa called out. "I know you're around here. I need some help."
The walker ran toward her, so Christa threw the rock she still held in her hand, hitting the walker on the forehead. The undead girl stumbled and fell back. Clementine came out of a tent next to where the walker fell and picked up the rock. Before the walker could get up, Clementine smashed the girl's head with the rock until it lay still. Christa walked over and crushed the girls head to it to make sure it wouldn't move again. She collapsed to her knees with her head in her hands and cried.
"Christa," Clementine's trembling voice said.
She turned and stared at the dark-haired girl standing there with a rabbit in her hand, not sure whether to hug her or berate her.
"Why did you run off," Christa said.
"After getting water, I saw a rabbit run into the trees, so I went after it."
Christa took her hands in hers and leaned forward. "That was a stupid thing to do. Why would you do that? One of those things could have gotten you, you know that. It almost did. Lee asked us," Christa sighed, "me to look after you"
I made a mistake. I know it was stupid. I'm sorry. I wanted to get us some food. I wanted to help." Clementine bowed her head.
"Making mistakes is a part of being human and in this world it's good to be reminded of that. But please don't do it again." Christa released Clementine's hands. "I lost one person I loved a month ago, I don't want you lose you, too."
"I'll be careful. I promise." Clementine shook her head and then tilted it. "Why were you crying? You've killed walkers before"
"It's always hard taking down the young ones. I can't imagine what it took for her family to leave her behind like they did."
Clementine looked past Christa at the blond walker and her face fell. "Oh."
"Crying is something I haven't done it in a long time, ever since…." Christa stopped from mentioning Omid's name when she saw the look of shame in Clementine's eyes.
"Come. Let's cook this rabbit up." Christa pointed to the animal, Clementine held in her hand.
"You'll have to start the fire," Clementine said. "I don't know how."
Christa wrapped her arm around Clementine's shoulder. Although there was still some anger at the girl for being careless with the gun and she knew the visions of the incident would take a while to diminish if at all, her personal healing process could start and most important at least she wouldn't be going through it alone. After lighting the fire, Christa took a hold of Clementine's hand and placed it on her pregnant belly, just in time for the girl to feel it kick.
"Omid and I never did agree on a name, maybe you could help." Christa patted Clementine on the back, as she looked down at her unborn child and smiled at the promise of hope growing inside her.