The Walking Dead: Broken

The Walking Dead Game ©Telltale Games


Episode Two: The River Runs Cold

Just keep running, don't stop, can't look back – Clementine repeated this mantra over and over in her head.

But no matter how fast she ran, she could still hear the solid footsteps of her pursuer close behind. As another gunshot rang out through the forest, tripped on her feet and hit the ground with her shoulder, hissing from the fresh wave of pain that ran up and down her arm. Another gunshot went off; the dirt near Clementine's feet exploded. Clementine pressed her thumb against her bullet wound, trying to stop the bleeding, as she desperately crawled back to her feet and took off running again.

Though she told herself not to, Clementine chanced a look behind her.

It was like watching a shadow dance between the trees; his/her black trench coat blended perfectly with the background of the dark forest. The black-hooded pursuer took another shot. The bark of a nearby tree exploded in Clementine's face, causing her to stumble but not fall. She needed to get out of their line of sight.

Over the rocks and through the bushes, Clementine came to a small partly clear area in the forest and cursed her luck. This was not a good place for hiding. She heard the bushes rustle and ducked behind the closest tree just as the black-hooded assailant stepped into view. The attacker stopped, pistol trained at his/her side, and looked around. He/she couldn't see the girl anywhere. Maybe she was hiding behind one of the sparse tree? The black-hooded pursuer silently stepped up to one of the trees and peeked around with his/her pistol held forward. She wasn't there.

"I know you're here, girl," said the black-hooded shooter. "Show yourself. I will find you."

The black-hooded shooter peeked around another tree – nothing. On the other side of the clearing, Clementine peeked around her cover and stared at the back of her pursuer. The white, cracked skull stood out prominently against the black background. Clementine feared, for just a second, that the skull print's hollow eyes were staring into her soul. It wouldn't surprise her. She had heard rumors of the skull before and of the person it was associated with.

"That skull on your back!" Clementine yelled, her voice echoing against the rain and thunder. "I know who you are! You're the Black Death, aren't you?"

"So you've heard of me," said the Black Death, kick aside one of the rocks. Nothing. "Then that means you know what I'm capable of. It's only a matter of time before I find you."

"Why?" Clementine asked, finding it harder to breathe. "Why is one of the Reapers chasing after me? I thought you guys were supposed to be killing the Walkers, not humans!"

"That's always been a misconception," said the Black Death, poking around another tree. "People create stories of the Reapers as heroes of humanity, trying to inspire hope into those who have already given up. But that's just a lie. We're just like everyone else – we're only looking out for ourselves."

"Then why come after me?" Clementine asked again.

"How many people have suffered because of you?" said The Black Death. "How many people had to die so that you could live? That girl in the gas station, the family you killed for food, that pregnant woman in Columbia, or what about that boy you kicked into a group of Soulless so that you could escape? You have as much blood on your hand as the Soulless"

"I did what I had to survive," Clementine retorted. "How do you even know about all that?"

"I've followed you for the longest time, Clementine," said the Black Death. "You have taken so much from other, and now," The Black Death appeared around the tree, pressing the barrel of his/her gun to Clementine's forehead "I'm going to take everything from you."

His/her finger was eager to pull the trigger and Clementine had her back against the tree. Clementine's natural instinct was to find back, but her brain was telling her not to do anything stupid. If even half the rumors were true, she knew there was no chance of going against the Black Death on her own. And by the sound of the hungry moans, it sounded like they weren't alone.

Clementine had never been so happy to see a Walker than she did now. Likely drawn by all the noise Clementine and Black Death were making, a rotten-skinned woman tumbled through the bushes, swinging her mangled arms at the Black Death. The Black Death looked away from Clementine for just a second, just long enough for her to sneak away undetected. As she climbed over the body of a fallen tree, gunshots sounded through the woods again. The Walker didn't last as long as she had hoped.

Running, running, running…she just kept running. She needed to put some distance between her and the soon-to-be arriving Walkers. Or worse, the Black Death.

Clementine sighed in relief as another clearing appeared before her, but quickly pressed her heels into the dirt and fell on her ass to stop herself. There was a large roaring river blocking her path. The river was too far to jump across, too deep to wade across, and was moving too fast for her to risk crossing without hurting herself. She reached another dead-end. Fan-fucking-tastic.

Clementine was considering heading back the way she came, hoping the Black Death would overlook her in the midst of the Walkers. But then someone grabbed her from behind and lifted her off the ground, pinning her arms to her side. The Black Death easily carried her with only one arm in spite of Clementine's ceaseless struggling.

"LEAVE ME ALONE!" Clementine screamed.

"Then stop fucking running," the Black Death growled in her ear.

Clementine kicked at the Black Death's side as hard as she could, but the hooded Reaper didn't feel a thing; his/her abdominals were hard as rocks. So she had to fall back on her surefire method of escape. She craned her neck over the Black Death's hand and bit down on the Reaper's thumb; enough to draw blood.

"FUCK!" the Black Death yelled. "Let go, you little bitch!"

But Clementine wouldn't let go. She bit down on his/her thumb a second time and buried her teeth deeper into the Black Death's skin; Clementine could taste his/her blood slipping down her throat. With a hiss, the Black Death dropped Clementine in favor of tending to his/her bleeding thumb. This was her chance to escape.

Clementine saw a log that was just small enough for her to slip through without the Black Death following. The slid over to the entrance, ducked down on her hands and feet and started to crawl inside the hollow trunk. She didn't get very far. Clementine had barely managed to get three feet inside before the Black Death grabbed her by the ankle and pulled her back in one clean motion.

The Black Death pulled Clementine off the ground by her ankle and when she was high enough in the air, he/she flipped the girl over and threw her back down on her back. Clementine choked on her breath; the bullet wound on her shoulder tingled painfully. Clementine slowly tried to prop herself up by her elbows, but the Black Death pushed her back down, using his/her knee to pin the girl to the ground. Having forgone the gun, the Black Death reached down to her boot and pulled out a serrated, black-steel hunting knife.

"I've had just about enough of your shit," said the Black Death. "Just die already."

The Black Death jabbed the knife down on Clementine, who turned her head at the last second so that the knife barely missed her by a couple of inches. The Black Death pulled back and tried again; this time Clementine turned her head in the other direction. The Black Death growled in frustration. He/she grabbed Clementine's face roughly by the chin, keeping her from moving again. Clementine kicked and punched, but the Black Death wasn't letting go.

The Black Death pulled back her knife for a third time and swung down hard; blood splattered in every direction. Oddly enough, it wasn't Clementine's blood. She followed arm and craned her neck back to the Walker that had crawled only a few feet from Clementine's face; the Black Death's knife buried in its skull.

"Damn Soulless," the Black Death grunted. He/she ripped the knife back from the Walker's skull, wiping the blood off with Clementine's shirt, much to her indignation. He/she stood up as the sounds of hungry moaned came closer. "Of course there would be more of them. Way to go, kid."

"You're blaming me for this?" Clementine scowled as she got back on her feet. "I'm not the one that went gun crazy a few minutes ago!"

The Black Death looked ready to retort when the rustling of the bushes took their attention away. There must have been two dozen Deadlings surrounding them, some of them Walkers and others were Crawlers.

"For Fuck's sake," said the Black Death.

The Black Death flipped the hunter's knife in his/her hand and stabbed the nearest Walker in the eye, pushing until it breach through the back of its skull. He/she pulled back, dropping the Walker, and made a clean-cut across the neck of another Walker to separate the head from the body; the Black Death crushed its skull under his/her foot. A lucky Walker managed to sneak up behind the Black Death and grabbed him/her by the shoulders, ready bite at the neck. Black Death reach over his/her shoulder and pushed the Walker off before spinning around with a solid high kick, sending the Walker's head flying into the river.

Clementine watched the Black Death from afar, stunned with astonishment. The way he/she took out the Walkers despite being vastly outnumbered – maybe there was some truth to the rumors after all. But Clementine didn't have time to be amazed. A Walker had managed to slip through undetected and grabbed her by the arm, trying to pull her closer for a bite. The only thing separating them was the pair of trees that the Walker had managed to get itself stuck in. Clementine put all her weight into pulling away and ripped the Walker's rotted arm from its socket.

That was too close. Screw this; she needed to get out of here while she had the chance.

Making sure that the Black Death was distracted by the Walkers, Clementine made a break for the trees. Of course it wasn't going to be that easy, not with the Walker's blocking her path. She managed to duck under the arms of a particularly gangly Walker and dived between the legs of a Walker that strangely looked like her old friend Ben. Clementine kicked the college Walker in the ass, throwing it into another pair of Walkers while she crawled back to her feet.

As she stood up and looked around, Clementine was starting to think there was no chance of getting out. The Black Death was mowing down Walkers left and right without signs of stopping. If she managed to kill all of them, she would be gunning after Clementine next. But if the Walkers did get the upper hand, that would leave her alone with a whole swarm of flesh eaters. There had to be some way she could come out alive in this – she didn't sacrifice for two years just to die like some helpless cattle.

And then it hit her: the river! The riptide would be too strong for her to swim in and there was always a chance of drowning, but at least she would be carried away to somewhere safe. Hopefully.

Clementine went over the idea in her head and decided it was better than taking her chances here. She ducked around a Walker and hopped over the rocks; the river was within her sights. She was close to reaching the edge. She was going to make it!

And then…agony.

Clementine felt a sharp sting of pain in her back and suddenly felt very dizzy, finding it very difficult to stand. She coughed; blood fell from her lips. With a shiver of anxiety, Clementine reached to the point in her back where she felt the sting and her finger touched the cold edge of serrated metal. The Black Death had got her – she literally stabbed Clementine in the back.

Her vision was starting to become blurry and the sound of the Walkers moaning sounded farther away. She was starting to feel cold; she shivered. But she wasn't going to stop. If she was going to die, it was going to be on her own terms, not someone else's. As so, barely conscious of what she was doing, Clementine stumbled forward and tripped over the edge of the river bank, feeling the cold rush of the water run over her.

And slowly…her world faded into black.


So…that was a thing. I don't really feel too confident in this chapter much, mostly because I though the action sequences were rather stiff and sometime broken, but it's a work in progress. If anything, I'm proud that I was able to introduce my original concept to the Walking Dead universe, the people referred to as Reapers. They will be elaborated more in the next chapter along with the introduction of Ava, but don't go thinking that the Reapers are like some super-powered heroes. They're just normal humans who have qualities that make them stand out more than most people. You'll find out next time.