The store looked just as dilapidated as every building on the street. It had a parking for a dozen cars in the front. The door was a metal frame with glass embedded in between. It used to be transparent but years of neglect had made it nearly impossible to see through. The glass fronts on either side of the door had been covered from the inside.

"Can you see anything?" Clementine asked AJ, as they both tried to look through the glass.

"No." He narrowed his eyes to see if that would help. "I can make out the shelves but it's too dark in there."

"It is. Let's see if we can get in." She set down the can and pushed the door, but it refused to move. She pressed her shoulder against it and gave it a harder push. The door moved slightly but got caught again.

"There's something blocking the door from the inside," Clementine said. "Here, help me push this."

They both pressed their shoulders against the door and pushed hard. When it seemed like it was futile, the door suddenly opened halfway, with a thud on the other side.

"Finally," she said.

AJ moved forward to enter the store but was immediately stopped by Clementine.

"What did we talk about, AJ?" she asked.

He sighed. "You go first and I follow you."

"And?"

"No wandering by myself."

"Good. Stay behind me, now."

Clementine unsheathed her knife and peeked in through the opening. It was still pretty dark but the open door provided some more sunlight. She could make out a couple of aisles and the cashier's desk to the right. Faded blood decorated the floor.

"AJ, pull out the flashlight from my bag and hold this," she instructed, handing him the can.

He opened the bag and handed her the flashlight. Shining it inside, looking for walkers, she saw a few food cans lying on the floor and a few still on the shelves. Most of it seemed empty. She slowly stepped inside. There was a shelf lying on the floor, still blocking the door from opening further.

"That's what was blocking the door," she told AJ as he entered. They made their way to the cashier's desk and examined it. It had a few chewing gum packets lying across the counter.

"What's that?" he asked, looking at them.

"That's chewing gum. You're supposed to chew it and then spit it out when the flavour is gone. I haven't seen these in forever."

"Can I try it?"

Clementine picked one up, reading its cover. "I think so. This one's strawberry. Here," she said, handing him one and bagging the rest. She bent over the counter and checked for drawers. She found one and opened it, revealing a few crumpled currency notes. She picked it, looking at it.

"Let's check the aisles," Clementine said, putting the money into her pocket. "Stay close."

He didn't respond, busy chewing the gum. "This tastes good," he told her.

"It does, doesn't it? I had a lot of these when I was a kid."

"Lucky," he said.

Clementine chuckled. "Wish I'd had more hot chocolate when I had the chance," she lamented, walking over to the aisles, AJ following her. The floor was littered with empty food cans. AJ kicked one and it made a sound as it flew through the aisle and hit the opposite wall.

"Don't do that. Stay as quiet as you can." She could make out a door along the wall, making a mental note to check it after going through all the aisles.

There were a handful of cans remaining in the shelves. Clementine picked one up, reading the name.

"Sliced peaches." She turned it around to check if it was rotten. It wasn't. "Look, we found some peaches," she told AJ, showing him the can.

He grabbed it and looked it over. She checked the other cans around the store, coming across three more cans.

"I like peaches," AJ said, as he placed the last can inside Clementine's bag.

"Yeah. At least we won't go hungry for a couple of days. We still have some rice and a couple of cans remaining." She looked at the door she'd spotted before. "Let's go see what's behind that door," she told AJ, making her way over to it.

The door had no window to look through. Clementine handed AJ the flashlight and told him to stand behind her. She held the knife with one hand, the other on the handle. Half expecting it to be locked, she turned it. Much to her surprise, the door slowly creaked open. The sound of a low growl broke the silence.

"There's a walker in here. Give me the flashlight," she said. She flashed the light inside. The floor was caked in dried blood, with stains spreading to the edge of the room, where the growl was coming from. She moved the light along the stain, spotting the walker. It was sitting in the corner, a cloth wrapped around its stomach. Its leg appeared to be broken, rendering it unable to get up. On the table beside it, was a book and a pen.

Clementine cautiously made her way over to the walker and stabbed it in the head. She picked up the book from the table, observing that it was stained with bloody fingerprints. She flipped it open, running through the pages. It seemed to be a diary with lots of writing.

"What's that?" AJ asked, standing at the door.

"Looks like a lot of scribbling and a couple of maps," she replied. "I'll read it later." She placed the diary into the bag, carefully pushing it to the side so it wouldn't get crumpled. The pages already looked like they were a touch away from being pulled out.

She turned her attention to the walker, noticing that the corpse didn't look as decaying as the walkers outside. Walkers that were around for a longer time had lost a lot of their flesh, giving them an eerie skeletal look. "It looks like he died from injuries and then turned," Clementine said, observing the cloth and his leg. "Someone could've attacked him. Explains why the front door was barricaded." She took a quick look around for any medicines. "There aren't any antibiotics in here. Maybe he died of his infection."

"That's not good," he said.

"No, it's not," she agreed. She flashed the light around looking for anything useful, suddenly spotting a piece of paper lying under the table. She reached for it, picking it up as a blood-stained photo fell out of the folded paper onto the ground. She picked up the photo, looking at the man and woman holding hands and smiling into the camera. She turned it around, finding a title that read: '2001: The Beth Rivers and Matthew Smith Home - Love, Jonathan'. The paper seemed to be empty, only covered in drops of blood. Clementine pocketed the photo, turning around to look at AJ.

"Let's leave. We've spent enough time here," she decided.

They walked back to the road and began making their way to the car. It was parked a mile outside of the small town. Clementine preferred to leave the car a little away from the zone when on supply runs in case someone was already there, giving them the opportunity of being undetected.

It had been a few hours since they had arrived there and it was already late afternoon. The breeze had continued blowing, allowing them a breather in the heat, although the night would get much colder. Trees grew along either sides of the road, completely covering it in fallen leaves.

Under normal circumstances, a teenage girl with a backpack and a gas of can in her hand, her knife by her side and a little boy, a pistol tucked into his belt, walking down the road, might have shocked people. But, being forced to grow under such circumstances had stripped away the innocence of childhood, replacing it with a more primal instinct of survival.

As they made the walk back to their car, AJ turned to Clementine.

"Clem?"

"Hm?"

"Are there any good people left?"

Clementine looked at him. "What makes you ask that?"

"That man in the room. He was killed by some people, wasn't he?" he asked.

She nodded slowly. "Most probably," she replied. "There are bad people everywhere. They were there before things were like this, too."

"So, are there good people?"

"Maybe. Everyone's just trying to survive. Some people do it peacefully, others more... violently."

"Are we good people?"

Clementine looked at the road, trying to form an answer. "Good doesn't have the same definition it did when things were normal," she began. "I've done bad things too, but I did them to protect myself or someone I loved."

"But you've killed people."

Clementine had killed more than one person. After being left alone with AJ following Kenny's death, she had become much more hardened. Killing did not bother her very much and she had learned to not to leave things to chance. She'd adopted a policy of better them than her. But with AJ growing up, she had realised that she couldn't be that person anymore. She had to be a better human for his sake.

"Yes. Because I had to. If there was any other way I wouldn't," she replied.

"But how do you know that you have to kill someone?"

"You... just know. I mean there are things that come into your head like whether they're armed, whether they're a threat, and all that, I guess."

"Okay," he said, nodding his head, trying to take in everything Clementine said.

"I'd still feel better if you didn't shoot someone. I don't think you're old enough to understand whether you should," she added.

"But I've grown up a lot now. I'll know," he insisted.

"Maybe. But, don't. Killing changes you, and it's better if you grew up first."

"It does?"

"Yes," she replied, finding her eyes locked onto his pistol. She remembered when she had to shoot the stranger to save Lee. It had horrified her even though she knew it was the right decision. "It makes you see things differently. You start looking at killing as an option."

"Oh."

They walked in silence for a few moments before AJ spoke again.

"Will I need to kill someone, like you did?" he asked.

Clementine didn't answer. She didn't know what to tell him. On one hand, the situation, being as it was, it was highly probable that he would need to take a human life. On the other hand, he was just a child. She didn't know whether telling him that he probably would was a good idea. She was responsible for him and she had to make sure she did the best she could as a motherly figure. She had to teach him the difference between shooting someone that wasn't a threat and shooting someone that was, before he decided to pick up a gun and point it at a human. If he couldn't differentiate, it would cause problems for them.

"Hopefully not," she finally answered. "I'll make sure it doesn't happen."

"Okay, Clem," he said. He didn't completely understand the concept of killing, but he knew that he never wanted to let Clementine down. He looked up to her.

"Have you killed someone you loved?" AJ asked Clementine.

They had nearly reached the car now. They could see it in the distance, an orange ugly thing. They had found it a month ago, lying in a garage. Other than the indicators, it worked fine, although the idea of functioning indicators in this time was a few steps lower than working televisions on the rung of necessities. The car also had a cassette player but with the apocalypse, Clementine and AJ weren't particularly motivated to go looking for cassettes.

Clementine sighed softly. AJ had been asking a lot of questions, some of them being quite tough to answer, but she was determined not to turn him down like she had been by most of the adults looking after her. He didn't understand a lot of things and it was only natural that he asked questions about them to someone.

"I did. I shot Lee."

"He was the one who took care of you, right?" he asked.

"Yes. He got bit looking for me. He asked me to shoot him before he died from the bite and turned." She paused. "He didn't want to be one of them."

"That must have been bad."

"It was," she replied, feeling that familiar dull ache. Lee had made sure she survived no matter what, putting her before himself. He was a stranger who had found a little girl and looked after her like his own daughter. Clementine had been completely lost when everyone she loved died to the walkers or to other people. AJ became her sole reason to survive and she was willing to give up her life for him, just like Lee did for her.

They reached the car. Clementine opened the trunk, revealing AJ's bag, a couple of bottles of water, and a small pile of their clothes, though they changed clothes only when they got too dirty. The cans of food and rice were in the backseat in a bag. She poured some of the gasoline in the car's tank and placed the can in the trunk. Drinking some water, she passed the bottle to AJ before closing the trunk. She put her bag on the passenger seat and got behind the wheel, while AJ got in the backseat, strapping himself in.

"Ready?" she asked, adjusting the mirror.

He nodded.

She slowly drove back onto the road and away from the small town. They drove in silence for nearly an hour, observing the road and the trees around.

She adjusted her mirror again, to look at AJ.

"What are you doing back there?" she asked, moving her eyes to the road and back to him.

"Looking." He stretched himself. "I'm bored," he said.

"I know. It is pretty boring. It would be nice if we had some music."

AJ didn't reply.

"Why don't you try reading? It's still light outside so you can practice for some time," she suggested.

"I don't want to."

"Come on. Just a page and you're free to look at the trees again."

"Fine," he said resignedly as he reached for the book lying on the seat beside him, opening it on his lap.

He tried reading the words but it was difficult for him. Most of it came out broken with several mispronunciations, corrected by Clementine. Frustrated, he closed the book and tossed it aside.

"Why is reading so hard?" he asked, irritated.

"Only if I knew, kiddo." She looked back at him. "Only if I knew."

Author's Note: Hope you enjoyed that! Reviews, follows and favourites are highly appreciated :D