"Let him go! NOW!" All Isaac could do was attempt to squirm out of the man's hold on him while his mother threatened his abductor with her revolver. The man laughed and tightened his arm, which was keeping the child off the ground as he kept backing up into the woods.
The man was a big man with shaggy greying black hair, covering most of his head, wearing a torn up brown jacket over his blue t-shirt. He also had on a pair of dark red sweatpants and black sandals, no socks covering his mud-crusted feet.
The man tried to reach behind his pants for a gun, but his arm got grabbed on to while doing so. He dropped Isaac, who landed on his knees. Isaac's mother was about to move towards her son, but she got pulled back at that moment.
Isaac was frozen in place as he witnessed his mother's neck being torn out by the jaws of a walker. The man behind him was also being torn apart at the same time, but he didn't care.
It took him a few seconds before turning towards where the man was being eaten. Isaac noticed a metal bar on the ground a few feet away. Isaac grabbed the weapon quickly and swung it at the walker that was tearing into his mother. Before he felt the impact of the metal in his hands connecting to its head, everything around him disappeared.
XXxxXX
The sun rose a couple of hours ago. Clementine volunteered to keep watch in the middle of the night so Isaac could get some sleep as well. It was quiet all night, which was a rare event since it's never quiet at night. She turned her head and noticed that Isaac was waking up. He sat up from laying on his back and yawned while stretching his arms. "Morning, Isaac." Clem told him.
Isaac looked towards her and nodded his head once in response. Isaac got to his feet and went over to his backpack and bow, which he had laid out by the river. He picked up his pack and opened it. "You sticking around?" Isaac asked.
"I don't have anywhere else to go." She responded. Isaac nodded and pulled the red hoodie he had in his bag and tossed it to her. Clementine caught it and looked at Isaac. "I wasn't about to let you get cold again." He said, zipping up his backpack and putting it on.
Clementine smiled and put it on, over her now-dry shirt while Isaac picked his bow up from the ground. His arrows were sticking out the back pocket in case he needed to draw his weapon quickly.
Isaac approached Clementine as she finished putting the clothing on. "I was on my way north. trying to find a community that's supposed to be safe. Y'know what I'm about?" She nodded her head in response. "Wellington?"
"Yeah, Wellington." Isaac said. He and Clementine approached the wooden structure. Isaac threw his bag and weapon up before he jumped up to the top. He then laid on his stomach as he reached down to help Clementine up.
Clementine was pulled up and Isaac started going down the same trail he came from since he passed a fork that went the opposite way he was headed. Isaac was a couple feet in front of Clementine, holding his bow in his right hand while he lent her his knife, which she kept sheathed in her pocket.
After they both went over the tree, Isaac decided to speak. "Where were you when everything... started..?" Clem wore a saddened expression as she thought back. "In my house. Back in Georgia." She then glanced over at Isaac. "What about you. Where are you from?"
Isaac took the right side of the fork on the trail as she asked him that. "I'm actually from here. From Ohio, but when it all started, me and my mom were visiting family in Texas." They continued forward in silence for a couple minutes after that.
Isaac was about to ask another question but stopped when both of them heard rustling from some bushes nearby. "Walker?" Clementine whispered. "It definitely smells like it. Get the knife ready, just in case." He quietly told her. She unsheathed the knife and gripped it in her right hand.
She started to go forward, but Isaac gripped her shoulder to stop her. "Let me go first." He reached back and pulled out an arrow. Clementine nodded and followed Isaac closely.
When they got closer, Isaac put the arrow on the bow, ready to aim. Then, before they knew what was happening, a brown-haired dog tackled Isaac to the ground, biting down into his arm. Isaac screamed in pain and tried to pull his arm away, but the dog was latched on tight.
Before Isaac could figure out how to beat the dog off of him, Clementine stabbed the dog in the neck, killing it. Isaac pulled the canine's teeth out of his arm quickly, which made the pain worse in his arm. "Ohhhh.. my- son of a- auggh!" Isaac stared at the deep wound for a moment before looking towards Clementine, who looked terrified and guilty at the same time, bloody knife discarded on the ground.
"Clem.." She shook her head, picked the knife up and looked over at Isaac's arm. "We need to keep going." Isaac nodded and went to pick up his bow and arrow, but Clementine beat him to it. "I'll put them in your bag." Before he could reply, Clementine stuffed his bow and arrow into his backpack. She then went to his side. "Put your arm around me."
Isaac complied and put his uninjured right arm over her shoulders. He and Clem kept going down the trail, hoping to find something to help Isaac's arm from getting infected.
A couple of minutes later, Isaac's head started to get dizzy and his vision was getting blurry. Clementine was struggling to carry him a little bit since she was a little bit smaller than Isaac, but kept a steady pace forward.
After a few minutes, Clementine stopped walking so she could catch her breath, setting Isaac against a rock nearby. Clementine went to sit next to Isaac. After a few moments of silence, Clementine glanced over at Isaac and saw that he was obviously struggling to keep himself conscious.
Clementine got to her feet and picked Isaac back up. She then heard some snarling and gurgling from somewhere behind her. She didn't need to turn around to find out what it was since the stench of rotting flesh in the air made it quite obvious to what it was.
"Not now..." She muttered, trying to go as fast as she could while supporting Isaac, who was doing his best to do the same. They kept going until one of the walkers were right behind them. Isaac shoved Clementine away and turned around just as the walker fell on top of him, trying to take a chunk out of him. Isaac kept it away with his hands for a couple of seconds before Clementine stabbed it through its temple with the knife.
Isaac looked up at her and noticed another walker a few feet behind her. "Behind you!" Isaac shouted. She turned around and saw the corpse, and gasped. Just as it was about to be right on top of her, an arrow went through its skull from behind and it fell forwards, almost taking her down with it.
Clementine saw two men. One with a small crossbow, and the other one with a machete.
The one with a crossbow was obviously older than the other, with a black goatee and a shaved head of hair. The man was wearing a dark green jacket and tan jeans.
The other guy looked like he was in his mid-twenties with medium length brown hair and a little bit of facial hair. He was wearing an orange sweater and brown jeans.
The older male turned towards the younger one. "I'm out! Grab the kid and let's go!" The younger man nodded and quickly picked Isaac up off the ground, leaving the backpack on the ground. Clementine picked up the backpack and swung it over her back before running after the two men who were carrying Isaac.
XXxxXX
The two men and Clementine kept running for about ten minutes now. As soon as they stopped, Clementine began breathing heavily while keeping herself on her feet. The older man looked back into the direction they came from, the other man doing the same. "I think we're safe." The older man said. The other man nodded his head. "Yeah... yeah, we're good."
The older man looked down at Clementine who was staring at him cautiously. "We ain't going to hurt you or your friend." Isaac was still awake at this point, hissing in pain his wound was rubbing up against the younger man's torso. The man carrying Isaac looked down at the child in his arms. "You alright, kid?" Isaac nodded his head. "Maybe let me walk?" Isaac asked. The young man shook his head. "Last I saw, you could barely keep yourself up. Even with your friend's help."
They all started walking forwards, Clementine on the far right, next to the man carrying Isaac and the older man on the left. The older man turned his head to look at Isaac, who had his eyes closed. The man then turned his attention towards Clementine who was keeping an eye on Isaac as they walked. "What're you two doing out here anyway?" The older male asked Clementine.
The other man looked down at Isaac, whose eyes were now open, staring at him. "Where are the uh... the people you're with?" The younger man asked. "There's no way you two made it this long on your own." He added.
"We got attacked yesterday. We're the only ones left." Isaac answered. Clementine nodded her head. "They probably just wanted some food. We were cooking some sort of weasel." She added.
"They attacked you for a weasel...? Damn. That is low." The younger man commented.
"They didn't mention any names, right...? They weren't searching for anybody?" The man in orange asked. The older man glanced over to Isaac for a couple seconds before focusing on where they were going. They were all silent as they kept walking.
"Well... I'm Luke." The man in orange stated and then turned his head towards his friend. "And this is Pete." Pete kept his eyes forward and smiled. "Heya."
"Hi. I'm Clementine." She responded, smiling as well. "And I'm Isaac." Luke looked down at Isaac with a smile on his face. "Well, it's nice to meet you two. For now, we're gonna take y'all back to our group, okay?" Luke said. "We got a doctor with us and you look like you could use some-" Luke then noticed that Isaac's arm had a bite wound. "OH SHIT!" He yelled as he dropped Isaac.
Isaac landed on his injured arm and gripped it as he sat up. "Ugh..." He groaned. Clementine went up to Isaac.
Pete approached from behind Luke. "What the hell happened?"
"He's been bit, man. FUCK! Fuck fuck fuck..." Luke started pacing back and forth. Pete looked down at Isaac, whose arm was being examined by Clementine. Pete saw the wound and his face showed a little bit of anger. Luke stopped pacing and turned to Pete who was still staring at the wound from a distance. "What're we gonna do here?" Luke said to Pete.
"No! It was a dog!" Clementine told them.
"I didn't see any dog, Clementine." Pete responded, crossing his arms over his chest.
Luke stood there with his arms crossed over his chest as well. "Come on, kid. We just saw you two with those lurkers back there." Luke pointed out. Pete looked over at Luke. "I can't remember the last time I saw a dog." He said. Luke shut his eyes for a moment before opening them again. "What do we do then?"
"You can see it from there. It's a dog. I SWEAR!" Isaac argued, hissing from the pain. The two men stared at the children for a moment. Isaac kept his gaze on Pete who looked to be thinking about something. Pete uncrossed his arms. "Hrrmm... all right." Luke then glanced over at Pete. "Let's see it."
"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Hey, watch yourself." Luke said. Clementine then made a face at Luke. "Hey, don't look at me like that! Your friend's the one that's bit here, okay?" He said before turning away.
Pete knelt down and gently took the arm into his hand to examine it. Isaac shut his eyes tightly for a second before looking at Pete. "You can tell the difference, right?" Pete kept examing the arm. "It's pretty hard to tell, to be honest with ya." Pete then got to his feet and walked over to Luke.
Isaac got to his feet as well, but almost lost his balance. So Clementine opted to supporting him by his arm. Pete and Luke went up ahead while the children slowly followed behind.
The two men stopped when they saw a cabin a bit further ahead and turned around to check on the kids. "You okay there?" Luke asked Isaac, noticing that the boy barely had his eyes open once again. "What... what do you... think?" Isaac answered, doing his best to keep himself conscious.
"Well I'm not gonna carry you with that bite on your arm." Luke told him. Isaac glared at him for a moment before everything went dark around him as he passed out.
Pete glanced over to Luke. "Mind reconsidering?" Luke turned to glare at Pete for a moment before sighing and agreeing to carry Isaac the rest of the way.