Whimpering and moaning on the floor, Arvo struggles to reach for his pistol a few feet away from him, but I pick it up quickly as Lilly trains her weapon on Bonnie and Mike. That gunshot echoed throughout the hall, and the noise is still ringing in my ears as I place Arvo's weapon in my back pocket.
"Hurts, doesn't it?!" I yell at the wriggling Arvo, whose attempts to glare at me come up short – deep down I know he's just a scared, little boy who made a big mistake. "I keep Jane from stealing your medicine, I try my best to keep Kenny from ripping you apart, and then you shoot me in the shoulder?! That's your thanks?!"
"Clem… what the hell?! What in god's name are you doing to him?!" Bonnie asks in shock, as I roll my eyes and provide her with the most basic answer I can come up with.
"I'm doing what you should've done!" I accuse, making a point of trying to make her feel as bad as possible. "Don't try to say that you're a better person than I am, 'cause you're not! You two are spineless, untrustworthy pieces of dog shit that I never should have believed in the first place!"
"Come on, you're being irrational!" Mike protests, raising his hands out in surrender just like he did back at that stack of toothpicks. Well I'm not falling for their antics this time, no way! "Just put the gun down, and walk away."
"So you can what? Follow Lilly and I to finish the job?" I remark sarcastically, and the three of them turn towards Lilly as if she's just shown up in the room. "Thanks, but I'll pass on that."
"Where's everyone else?" Bonnie asks quietly; her voice more reserved now than ever.
"Not that it would've mattered to you," I spit out harshly, not backing down from them, "but… Kenny's dead. There, are you happy now? You got what you wanted! Maybe we should all go out celebrating, since one of the three people you wanted dead are gone now!"
"Am I missing something here?" Lilly chimes in, confused as to what the hell I'm babbling on about.
Not taking my eyes off of Bonnie or Mike, I try calming myself down a little after my little tirade.
"These three stole all of our supplies and were planning to leave Jane, Kenny, a freaking baby and I with absolutely nothing," I explain tiredly. "I was going to hand Mike my gun, when this jerk over here shot me in the shoulder!"
"Fuck you…" Arvo swears, muttering some other Russian profanities that make no sense to me. "You… you deserve loads more! You kill Natasha! Murder my sister, and take me as hostage!"
"What do you think these two did?!" I ask him, pointing with my gun. "We were all part of the same group that took you! And your sister was already a walker – if I hadn't shot her, then she would've gone over and try to eat you!"
"LIAR!" Arvo screams, his face brimming with painful tears. "Should have killed you then! In face! Shoot!"
"I'd be careful if I were you," Lilly interrupts, giving Arvo a quick glance. "Clem's the one with the gun now – she's got your life in her hands."
"Is she your lapdog or something?" Bonnie quirks, but visibly paling even more than she normally looks when Lilly aims the rifle menacingly at her.
"I've been with her since two days ago," I comment, "and I already trust her more than you."
Lilly probably thinks that I'm just saying that to prove my point… but it's actually kind of true. Despite her shortcomings, Lilly hasn't done anything since she came back to make me question her. My suspicions of what she's going to do when Jane and I have outlived her usefulness haven't faded, but for now she's starting to get into my good books. We've actually got a lot more in common than I thought we had.
That's why it's her and I standing together instead of Mike or Bonnie.
"What exactly did you want from us, Clem? Did you come here just to kill us and get revenge?" Mike asks, making me pause for just a moment. Why am I really here?
"No," I tell him truthfully, though still not lowering my weapon, "but… urgh, I don't even know anymore! I just got ticked off when I saw you guys in here!"
"Then why don't you just go?" Bonnie suggests, no longer the friend that I thought she could've been. Now… all I see from the two of them is betrayal. Betrayal and hurt. "Just get out of here! We'll go our separate ways, and then you'll never have to see us again!"
"Don't put words in her mouth!" Lilly barks, suddenly seeming as if she hates them just as much as I do. "I can see what you're doing – trying to manipulate an eleven year old! I bet that's what you did before, didn't you? To get what you wanted?"
"Who the hell are you to know anything about this anyway?" Mike asks, slowly backing up behind one of the church benches. What's he trying to do?
Lilly glances my way for just a brief second before telling him it's none of his god-damned business. Lilly doesn't take crap from anybody!
"All I want to know," I interrupt, lowering my gun for just a moment to illustrate my point, "is why this… monster… is still alive? Even after everything he did, you're still with him?! Did we mean nothing to you guys?"
"Of course you did…" Bonnie sighs, her gaze lowering to the floor as Mike moves back a little further. "But… you're alive, aren't you?"
"You didn't know that," I mention, folding my arms across my chest as Arvo glares at me. This asshole really wanted me dead…
As Bonnie is about to explain herself, I notice that Mike has practically backed up near the back of the church, and is slowly bending down to pick something up. Not liking where this is going, I prepare to draw my pistol again…
…when Arvo pulls out another gun of his own.
"LOOK OUT!" Lilly screeches as I duck for cover. Arvo's bullet scrapes my arm painfully, and I've got a nasty-looking cut there now, but there's no actual bullet wound. Grinding my teeth together, I scoot the rest of my body out of sight as the firing commences.
Both sides are sending bullets in each other's way; the sound deafening my ears as Lilly takes cover behind a pillar. She looks at me worriedly, but I simply nod and wince as the blood trickles down this stupid ski jacket. I'm gonna fill Bonnie's corpse with lead!
…okay, maybe that's a little bit morbid.
Grabbing my pistol from the floor, I keep my head down to avoid being shot at, as the bullets smash through the wooden benches and occasionally send splinters soaring over me. I drag myself over the wooden floor and stick my head out for just a second, but Arvo is no longer there. Confused and worried that he managed to slip away, I quickly look in all directions to see if he's hiding somewhere. Arvo's the first one who needs to die.
Somebody collapses a few feet away from me, and I know that stinking, lying son of a gun must've cowered for cover after the fighting started. Bonnie and Mike don't seem to notice me, as they're too distracted from shooting at Lilly, so I slowly make my way over to him. Hoping to sneak up on Arvo, I gasp as he gets the upper hand and surprises me as I turn towards him.
With a swift whack to my face, Arvo wrestles me to the ground as he kicks me right in the stomach. I contort in pain as he then kicks me in the face, and I prepare for the end.
"This is the end for you!" Arvo screeches as he aims his pistol directly at me.
But his shot never comes. Lilly's does though, as a bullet rips through his skull and sends chunks of his head spraying all over me in a disgusting fashion. Arvo's deceased body collapses on top of me, and I struggle underneath his weight to get out. At least he won't come back as a walker – then I'd be royally screwed.
"Shit! I'm out!" I hear Mike yell as the firing starts dying down. Bonnie launches off another assault on Lilly's position, and shrieks as she's shot right in the arm. "FUCK! BONNIE!"
"Urgh! Kill her! She's behind that damn pillar over there!" Bonnie grunts, having to resort to only using one arm. "Where's Clem?!"
"Damned if I know!"
It won't be long before they find me, so with all my might I shove Arvo off to the side; his body landing with a thump against the floor. I don't exactly want to kill Bonnie and Mike, but what the hell are we supposed to do now?!
"Did you get her?!" Bonnie yells frantically, clutching her wound as I sneak my way beside her.
"I'm not sure," Mike admits, widening his eyes as he spots me coming up beside Bonnie. "SHIT! BEHIND YOU!"
"Surprise," I say mockingly; the barrel of my gun raised dangerously to her temple as she starts panicking. "Drop it, Mike! I'll shoot her, you know I will! It's over!"
"Let her go, Clem! You don't want to do this!" he warns, not backing down as the gunfire suddenly stops. Lilly?! I could really use your help right now!
"Put your gun down now!" I bark at him, glowering as he looks between Bonnie and I. "I'm not gonna ask again! Last chance!"
"Just fucking shoot the kid, Mike! Save yourself and get out of here!"
"Shut up," I say furiously, hitting her in the side of the head with my gun. That's gonna leave a bruise. "You're not using me anymore, Bonnie! I've heard enough out of you!"
Huh… funny. I could have sworn that Lilly said almost those exact same words before she killed Carley over two years ago.
As my angry companion pops in sight, Mike knows now that he's at a disadvantage. With one gun trained on him, and mine dangerously close to Bonnie's head, he tries to figure out what his best option is.
If I were him, I'd give up and pray that Lilly and I don't shoot them for this nonsense anyways!
But, unfortunately, Mike seems to have a different agenda. As he pretends to surrender, he instead shoots Lilly in the stomach as she topples over in pain. Mike gets ready to fire again, but I take my gun off of Bonnie and shoot him twice in the hip…
The next order of business is blowing Bonnie's brains out. I hate myself for doing this, but it's the only way that we're gonna get Mike to stop shooting. Lilly's groaning in pain, and Mike bellows out as he hears me pull the trigger and end Bonnie's miserable existence.
She falls limp against my shoulder and her eyes stare into my golden orbs lifelessly. I'm sad that it had to come to this, but… they went way too far.
Scurrying over to Lilly while ignoring the pain in my arm, I bend down and sigh in relief as I see that she's still alive.
"Are you okay?" I ask dumbly.
"No!" she replies just like I expected she would. "God damn this hurts! FUCK! Just… just leave me. Go and save yourself…"
As sick and sadistic as this might sound, a part of me actually wants to do it – to leave Lilly here with Mike, gather up any other supplies from this town and then head back to Howe's with my haul. It would be so easy to do it right now… but that wouldn't make me any better than Carver.
And I flat-out refuse to be like Carver.
"We need to get you somewhere safe," I respond emotionlessly, turning around to make sure that Mike hasn't gotten up to kill the both of us. He more than likely wants to do it at this point, considering that the only person he's got left is dead.
"The wound doesn't look too deep," I inform her as I lift up her shirt a little bit to examine the damage. She almost instantly swats my hand away. "I can't help you if you won't let me, Lilly!"
"Just go!" she barks, her stubbornness kicking in at full force. "Don't waste your time on me. Damn it Clem, just… why?! We're nothing to each other!"
"We don't have to be," I admit, standing up and walking over to Mike and the supply bag. His face is contorted in anger, but it doesn't faze me. Not much does these days. "What do you want me to do?"
"The fuck are you talking about?" Mike questions, grunting in anger and sadness as Bonnie rests her dead body on the floor. "I don't want jack shit from you, you little punk!"
"I mean," I tell him quietly, bending down to his height and holding the pistol out in front of me, "do you want me to just… end it?"
His eyes dart between me and the gun, and after a while he shakes his head. Huffing out a sigh, I stand up and walk over to the supply bag; unzipping it and pulling out some of the baby formula along with a bottle of peroxide and cloth.
"I'm taking these for AJ and Lilly," I tell him solemnly, turning towards the man who at one time I called a friend. "The rest is yours."
"Why wouldn't you just take all of it… after what we did?" Mike asks with a glare.
"Because," I answer him simply, "I'm not like you."
Placing the various items in my backpack, I see Lilly reluctantly (and with much pain) stand up and begin following me outside. Mike sits in the back of the church and makes occasional screams as if to relieve some of his anger and sadness. We'll never see him again.
I force Lilly to wrap one of her arms around my shoulders so that she's better balanced, and the two of us make our way outside.
AN: Alright, sorry if that wasn't what you were hoping for, but I needed Arvo to die… and as soon as the shots started, then everyone had to try and defend themselves. It just didn't turn out so well for Bonnie.
I'm not turning Clem into some egotistical maniac, but she doesn't take shit from anyone now. She's becoming more like Lilly in that sense, with a softer side like I know that Jane can have. Thanks to all who have reviewed so far, and I'll be sure to write the next chapter as soon as I get the time!