"Hey, get up," a voice rang through the air, with a deep southern accent in it.
I was still laying down on the sleeping bag, half-awake and half-asleep. I heard Lee deeply yawn, rising off of his sleeping bag.
"What about the girl?" The man asks, "You gonna wake her up?"
"Yeah, I will," Lee assured, kneeling down right next to my sleeping form.
I felt the touch of his rough hands nudge me, softly shaking me awake.
"Hey, Clem," Lee whispered, his warm breath tickling my ear. "Wake up."
I softly fluttered my eyes open, clumsily lifting my drowsy body off the sleeping bag. I let out a soft yawn, covering it with both of my hands. Remembering the place that I had slept at, I inched my hands up to cover my nose.
"Lee, do I smell like shit?" I whispered, widening my eyes in awe.
"Come on, don't say that. You smell just fine," He reassured, pulling me up to stand.
"I'm also a bit itchy."
"Well, you just slept in a barn, little lady, lucky you don't have spiders in your hair!" The man with the southern accent teased. I frowned, crossing my arms, shaking my head at the terrible joke. "But I bet your daddy, scared them all away, huh?"
"I'm not her dad," Lee jumped in. "My name's Lee."
"I'm Kenny," The southern man introduced.
"Dad!" This little kid popped out from nowhere, leaning against the entrance of the barn. "We're gonna build a fence! There's a tractor and everything!" He ran off to the opposite direction. His first impression was, to me, very annoying. But he was a little kid, maybe eight or nine. I was once was, too. I shouldn't be really judgmental on him.
"We better get going, or we won't hear the end of it," Kenny chortled, leading us both out of the barn.
Lee squeezed my hand, walking me out of the barn with him, following Kenny.
"That's my boy, Ken Junior, we call him Duck though," he mentioned, giving us a slight smile.
"Duck?" Lee asked, as if he couldn't believe what he has just heard.
"Yea. Nothing bothers him. Like water off a duck's back, y'know."
"That's a valuable trait lately," Lee commented.
"No kidding. But frankly, I think it's because he's dumb as a bag of hammers," Kenny flatly admitted.
"DAAAAD!" Duck called out.
"But, he makes up for it with enthusiasm," Kenny added, leading us to the front of the white house. "The word is that you were on your way to Macon," Kenny turned his body to face Lee's.
"My family's from there," Lee added.
"Well Macon's on the way and, personally, I'd appreciate the company of a guy who can knock a couple of heads together if he has to," Kenny confessed.
"I'll see what the girl would like," Lee replied, looking down at me.
"Ah, gotta consult the missus, I understand," he said, almost in a jokingly way. He turned his attention over to Duck and a blonde-haired woman sitting on a stack of hay. "Honey, Duck, this is Lee and uh, what's the girl's name?" He asked, directed to Lee.
"Clementine," I introduced myself, before Lee had the chance to say anything. I really didn't appreciate how Kenny kept treating me like a six-year-old.
"Clementine," Kenny said, concluding his previous sentence.
"That is a very pretty name," the blonde-haired woman complimented.
"Well, we should get to work," Shawn noted, popping out from nowhere. "We've all seen what those things can do out there so the faster we get this fence up, the better."
"I want to build a fence!" Duck chirped.
"Yeah? Well I need a good foreman. You can sit on the tractor and yell at me whenever I take a water break," Shawn joked playfully.
"On the tractor? Cool!"
"Duck and I will hop to it," Shawn informed us, leading Duck into the backyard.
Once they left to the backyard, Lee crouched to my height, facing me. "Going down to Macon sound good to you?" He asks.
"I honestly don't know," I divulged, feeling sick on the inside on what I was going to tell him. "The day before all of this commotion happened, I was watching the news. I think I was watching the Cherry Blossom Festival taking place in Macon. This woman got eaten alive by one of those, walkers, in front of the camera. But… I'm willing to go if it's safe there, now."
"Good," he expressed, standing up to his full height. "It's a plan then."
"I can keep an eye on your little girl up here on the porch," Kenny's wife suggested, "We can visit."
God, I hated those two words put together, especially if they were referenced to me. Little girl, how could I look so little to those two people? Words like that made me feel degraded, unimportant, like I'm not capable to do anything myself, needing an adult to help me.
I sighed and took a seat next to her on the stack of hay as Lee and Kenny walked away. She smelled like my grandmother, I noticed. And she looked just as heavy as a refrigerator.
"Hi, how are you?" She greeted, in some kind of European accent. "My name's Katjaa," she introduced. "How have you been doing in the last couple of days when everything went crazy? I mean, are you okay? I know that living in this new world can traumatize kids, if they were to grow up in it."
"I'm good," I replied to her first question. But for her second one, 'How have you been doing in the last couple of days when everything went crazy?' I've wanted to abstain from answering that, from so much loss occurring for the past, I dunno, three days? "Do you mind if I don't answer your second question?" I asked her, a hint of annoyance in my voice.
"Oh I'm sorry; I shouldn't have asked. I really didn't mean to be rude," she sighed. "It's just that, I've seen so much death occur during these days. My family and I got back from visiting my sister in Tennessee a few days ago, only to find corpses eating people alive along the way as we drove. It just lightens my heart finally seeing people like you and Lee, alive people, the ones who haven't turned into one of those things," she stated, distress evident throughout her speech.
I really didn't know what else to say to this woman. It made me sorrowful to see other people in pain or agony. "I'm sorry you had to go through all that," I tell her in an attempt to comfort her.
"Living in a world almost desolated of people," she began, tearing up, "It makes me wonder; what is the point of living? If all we have to do is worry about survival, and about those things out there. What's the point of life if you can no longer enjoy what you've had before all this started? I don't think I could ever get used to living in a world like this."
She started sobbing, placing the palms of her hands over her face. I awkwardly reach in to give her a hug, considering this was a woman who I just met.
She briefly stops weeping, wiping the excess tears off her cheeks with her arms. "Thank you, I appreciate your concern," she forced a slight smile, referring to the hug I gave her. "If you don't mind now, I'm going to go get myself cleaned up in the bathroom," she said, lifting herself off the stack of hay and walking into the small, white house.
A lot of the stuff she mentioned earlier made me wonder as well. Heck, I didn't even know how long I would last living in a new world like this. I mean, I had a gun, for protection. I really hadn't had the slightest clue how to properly use it. I mean, my dad only let me touch it once. Just once. And pulling the trigger made my index finger sore, becoming numb soon after.
"AHHHH!" I hear Shawn screech, along with the tractor running louder than usual. I exit my thoughts, rushing over to the backyard to see what's going on.
There he was. Shawn's legs were trapped under the weight of the tractor Duck was sitting on. Walkers were trying to claw their way through the fortifications. Shawn clutched onto the grass, trying to release himself from the tractor's weight. Duck peeked his head over to look a trapped Shawn, unaware of what he has done. A walker's hands clutch onto the fabric on Duck's shirt. He called out, pleading for help.
I hear the grass getting stomped on nearby, noticing Lee had ran over to Shawn's side, trying to push the weight of the tractor off of his legs.
"Get it off of me!" Shawn cried, petrified that the walkers behind the undone fence might be getting to him. "Fuck! They're coming, man, they're coming!"
Kenny makes an appearance out of nowhere, rushing over to his son, scooping him up into his arms and stepping away from the tractor.
"KENNY! HELP LEE!" Shawn begged. Kenny just looked back at him in horror. Disregarding on what he had just said, Kenny ran off with his son away from the tractor and the walkers, over to stand by Katjaa. "KENNY!"
I wanted to help Shawn out, alongside by Lee. He and his friend Chet rescued us from the walkers coming in on us. At least, maybe I could make it up to him by trying to save his life. And maybe this can prove to the others that I'm not a little girl.
As Lee tried to pull Shawn out by his arms, I pulled my piece out from the back of my pants, aiming it at one of the walker heads. I squeezed the trigger, the gunshot noise rang through the air, hearing Katjaa scream at the sudden noise. Luckily, I hit its head, causing it to tremble to the ground. I aimed my gun at the other walker trying to break the fence down. I pulled the trigger, I aimed for its head. But because of my poor aiming skills, the bullet tore through its neck, wounding it, but not killing it. I pulled the trigger again, trying to kill it, but my gun only made a click noise. I pulled it again, another click noise. I was out, and I had no clue how to reload it.
"AHH AHHH!" Shawn shrieked in anguish. But before I knew it, the rest of the walkers broke the fence down, causing Lee to jump back feet away from Shawn. One took a bite out of his thigh and the other took a bite out of his neck, blood soaking into his clothing.
I covered my hand with my mouth, turning away to throw up, I noticed a horrified Hershel approaching, his shotgun in his hands. He shoots the two walkers eating his son. Another one approached the fence. He blew its head up as well with his shotgun. He tossed his shotgun aside, rushing over to his wounded son, kneeling over him.
"I'm ok pop… I'm ok…" Shawn croaked, barely getting the words out.
"I can fix you, don't worry, we'll stitch you up," Hershel assured, running a hand through his son's hair.
"It almost… it almost got me man. Lee and the girl tried to save me," Shawn uttered weakly. Shawn and Hershel both glanced at us.
"I know, son," Hershel acknowledged.
"I…." that was Shawn's final word, before he took a deep breath and died shortly after.
Hershel gazed at his son in shock, not believing that his son had just died right before in his own eyes. He took a breath and briefly cried over his son, smoothing his son's hair with his hand.
He stood up on his knees, his eyes widening. "Get out," he muttered coldly. He stood up all the way onto his legs. He shot his eyes at all of us, rage filling his facial expression. "Get the FUCK out of here!" He yelled, his voice all crackly.
"I'm sorry," Kenny apologized, almost without any emotion.
"SORRY? Your son is alive, you don't get to be sorry!" Hershel scolded. "You and the girl tried to help him," he pointed his eyes over at me and Lee. "But this piece of SHIT here let him die," he chastised, pointing his finger over at Kenny.
I stayed quiet for the whole time, and so did Lee. I didn't want to say anything after the man had just lost his son.
"You both don't have to say anything. At least you two tried." He expressed as calmly as he could. "Please, just go. Get out, and NEVER come back," He spat harshly at the end of his sentence.
Kenny, Katjaa, Lee, Duck, and I all gave each other awkward glances for a while. For the time being, it was silent, and all you could hear was the wind passing by the leaves on the trees, making a short ruffling noise.
"You got that ride to Macon if you want it," Kenny offered flatly, breaking the silence.