Clementine quickly threw on her jacket and tired to make her hair a bit less messy. Sweat seeped out of her pours, and she wiped it away with her sleeve. Her breathing was irregular and she gripped the edges of Carver's desk, in his office, to relax.
She muttered curses under her breath, she did it for Luke. And that was all that mattered, the thought of seeing him alive and well made everything that just took place worth it.
Through some of the cracks in the curtains, Clementine saw where her friends were staying. A big gated area, it had a resemblance to a prison courtyard.
Bunkbeds lined the walls to the back, a small fire pit sat in the middle and she spotted a few recognizable faces there. The entire view of Howes, Carver's camp, could be seen from his windows. She ran her fingers across the windowsill and took a deep breath.
"What am I gonna tell them? What..What would Luke think? I did this for him..Just…Okay, Clementine calm down, just, don't tell them…Tell them Carver wanted to lecture you again..Yeah.." Clementine muttered to herself, quietly, in a hope of calming down.
She grabbed her hat and pulled it over her head, she could hear Carver coming back with the supplies.
As she turned to face him, she caught something in the corner of her eye. Carver's revolver sat on the corner of his desk, if she moved now, she could get it.
Holding him hostage would be a stupid idea, considering outside his doors were dozens of heavily armed men and women.
No, bad idea.
Carver stood in the doorway, a bag full of medical supplies clutched in his hand. Through the stretching plastic, Clem could see peroxide, needles, bandages and more. She walked up to him and ripped the bag from his hand.
"A deal is a deal." He muttered as she exited the room and walked down to the hallway to where here friends were, and she didn't look back. She could hear Carver stepping back into his office, feeling quite pleased with himself.
Clem's hands turned into fists and she sped up her pace, she knew guards were watching her.
The air was crisp and bit at her skin, making her even colder because of the sweat that still covered her body. Many of the people here referred the prison her friends were staying in as the 'pen'.
She might as well.
Through the heavy metal gate were two people looking at her, Riley and Kenny.
Luke was laying down on a bunk bed in the back with Carlos tending him. Rebecca, Alvin, Nick, Sarita and Sarah stayed put at the fire pit. And no sign of The Girl in The Field, thankfully.
Troy walked over and raised the gate for her, and he angrily closed it behind her as she stepped in. Before she could get a word out, Riley enveloped her in a hug, it really knocked the breath out of Clem's lungs, but she melted into it. It was good feeling to have your best friend in arms reach.
Riley's warm breaths hit her neck and sent shiver up her spine.
"You hella scared us, Clem. Where were you!?" Riley questioned, pulling away from the hug and gripping her shoulders tightly, staring her right in the eyes. Clementine stuttered a reply.
"Carver took me up to his office to lecture me, thought I was gonna be a issue."
Riley took a second to process the information before looking down at what was in Clem's hand. Her eyes widened and Kenny walked a bit closer.
"How'd you get that?" Kenny questioned, putting his hands on his hips and staring Clementine down.
Clementine lied to the best of her abilities.
"I got through to him about giving Luke supplies, stubborn bastard." Kenny raised an eyebrow.
"But-Ah-nevermind. Luke's gonna need that, he's on his way out, that doctor better know what to do." Kenny muttered and stomped away, walking over to his lady friend, Sarita. They exchanged warm look and sat next to each other. Hand in hand.
The sight made a smile creep up on her face, but at the moment, she had more important things to do. She walked over to where Luke and Carlos were. Carlos was holding a blood covered rag to his leg, applying pressure. Luke's face went through multiple expressions of pain.
Clem handed the bag to Carlos and let him do his work. The color on Luke's face had drained, eyes shut, and some blood slivered out of the corners of his mouth. She kneeled by him and brushed a few strands of his golden brown hair behind his ears. He stirred and his tired eyes opened up to see her.
Clem gave him a friendly smile, he managed a grin, he was glad to see her, but he couldn't get a word out from his sore, dry, throat. Clem reached out and held his hand, then leaned over to his forehead, planting a kiss there.
"You're gonna be alright, I promise." And she believed it, before Luke went back under, Clem saw a glint of happiness in his eyes. She loved him, and she didn't want to see him go through so much pain. She nodded at Carlos and walked over to a an empty bunk a few ways away.
So much was going through her head, it was almost too much to handle. The Girl, Christa's head, Luke's leg, the deal, and Carver. She sat there for a few minutes without blinking, just being deep in thought. She tried to ignore the painful grunts coming from Luke as Carlos fixed up his leg.
"Clem?"
Her eyes darted over to a person by the bunk, Riley. Concern seemed to bleed her heart dry as she continued to stare at her. Her dark brown hair glistened in the moonlight above them and her eyes were that familiar green color. She took a seat next to Clem on the bunk.
"Most of us are heading off to bed right now, you..okay?" Riley asks, Clem didn't want her to worry, so, she lied. There was already enough to be worried about.
"Yeah, I'm fine."
"Can't you just tell me the truth? I know you're not 'fine' Clem, I can see it in your eyes."
Now she was busted, there was no turning back. What was she thinking? Lying to Riley? Riley knows her like the back of her hand, she had no chance of getting away with it. Riley examined her for a minute before her eyes went wide.
"Wait, did you have sex..With Carver?" Riley questioned, grabbing Clem's arms and making them face to face. Clem gulped, unknowing of what to say. Riley shook her head, and the expression on her face became a confused and hurt one.
"Why? Why did you do that?"
"It was a deal. The sex..for the medicine.." Clementine croaked out, being ashamed of herself, but she did it for Luke. She might've just saved his life. Riley leaned forward and pulled Clem in for another hug, running her hand through her hair, trying to calm her down. She whispered sweet nothings into her ear, and Clem was desperate enough to listen.
"I-I can't tell anyone, not even Luke.." Clementine muttered into Riley's dark hair, she was scared. That was happening more and more to become a regular thing, and she hated it. She hated being scared.
"Shh, It's gonna be okay. I ain't gonna let anything happen to you, I'll always be here." Riley says into her ear and then pulls away from the long hug. Staring right back into her friends eyes. She reaches over and pulls a piece of Clem's hair behind her ear.
"Get some sleep, according to that Troy asshole, it's gonna be a long day tomorrow." Riley said before getting off of Clem's bunk and heading to her own. Clem laid down and tried to relax. And after a few minutes of being deep in thought, she impossibly fell asleep.
*Clementine's dream*
She's sitting in a chair in a dark room, a single lightbulb flickering above her head. Across the room was the familiar Girl in The Field. Staring at her with those large, glowing, blue eyes.
"The voices…THE VOICES!" The girl started to scream, she collapsed on the floor and clutched the sides of her head as if it were going to implode. She cried out in pain, and after a few moments of the intense agony, she looked up at Clementine.
"Those men in those white coats did this to me..They put the voices in my head..And I killed them. I KILLED THEM ALL!" She began to cackle, she got up into a standing position and walked up to Clementine, only a few inches from her face.
"Do you not remember your cousin? Do you not remember me? Bella?"
*End of Dream*
Before Clem got kicked awake by Troy, she thought about her dream.
The Girl in the Field is my cousin. Bella. How? What did she mean by the voices? The men in white coats? Doctors? Scientists? And…How can she be real?
After being kicked awake, Clem had to listen to Carver's shitty speech, and she tried not to make eye contact with him. She couldn't even say goodbye to Luke, who was up and conscious. She was given a job in the greenhouse, along side Sarah and Riley.
"How many people do we have to kill to get out of here?" Riley whispered as they walked past some guards. It's been on Clem's mind for awhile, and she expected Riley to ask sooner or later, how many people were they going to have to kill? If it meant the group would be getting out safely, Clem would kill them all. She was game on whatever plan the group would come up with, unless it was incredibly stupid.
"As many as we need to." Clem says, Clem didn't want to hear her lecture her about how fucked up she was, so, she stomped ahead. Walkers on the other side of the fence moaned and clawed at the wood boards, one day those fences would come crashing down, and Clem hoped that the group wouldn't be here for that.
As the duo walked past some abandoned stores, she could see some of the other 'inmates' working and hammering down planks of wood on the windows. She could see through the cracks in the boards a woman glaring at her, someone the pen inmates referred to as "Jane". As they walked away, Clem could feel Jane's cold stare penetrating the back of her head. There was something odd about her.
"HEY, I SAID WORK FASTER!"
In a store up ahead, the front door swung open and a person was suddenly pushed out, falling to the ground. Hard. Sarah.
Troy then comes out, his face twisting in anger, he roughly grabs her again and raises his hand to give her a hard smack. Even though Clem wasn't very fond of Sarah, she wasn't about to just watch her get hurt.
"Please don't!" Sarah whimpered, Clem made a dash for them, Riley's footsteps not far behind. Before Troy's hand collided with Sarah's terrified face, Clem shoved him away. He lets go of Sarah and glares at Clem.
"You are trouble, If Carver would let me, I would've killed you a long time ago, but you're his fucking sex toy!" He steps over Sarah's whimpering body and stands right in front of Clem, she could feel his husky, hot, breaths on her skin. It was disgusting, it reminded her of…
Troy grinned evilly, his eyes turning dark. He shoves her, but she doesn't fall. And she doesn't ask him to stop. She stands her ground, and she gave him her best death glare. He sends a fist into Clem's stomach, pain shot through her veins and she stumbles a few feet backward from the impact. She clutches her chest tightly and some blood manages to escape her mouth, and drips onto the floor.
The metallic taste lingering on her tongue. He smiles in satisfaction, but before he can punch her again, Riley gets in-between them.
"You wanna hurt her?! You're going to have to go through me first, asshole!" She yells in his face, a bit of spit landing on his cheek, he wiped it away with his sleeve and narrowed his eyes at her.
"Honey, you're going to have to move or you'll get a bullet in your head." He snarls with a bit of silliness at the end. It was unsettling enough.
"Shoot me, bitch." She continues in the dispute, fighting back against his awful retorts. Just give it time and they'd be physically dueling it out. She scowls at him and crosses her arms, although her hands were bawling up into fists. Troy finally forfeits and turns around to Sarah. He roughly yanked on her whimpering body and pulled her into a standing position. He grunts in frustration.
"Do I really have to deal with all of you? Ya'll go bother Bonnie, I don't want to have to babysit you stupid whores!"
Riley stepped up to Sarah and put an arm around the younger girl's shoulder. A large crack was visible on the front of her ruby red glass, she looked terrified, almost petrified.
"Move the fuck along, if I see any of you sluts out of line..You'll wish you were dead."
"How the fuck are we supposed to get out of here?!" Riley asks as the group takes their seat around the crackling fire pit. She picked at the dirt underneath her nails from the previous job they worked after that incident with Troy. The heat of the fire tickled Clem's skin as she reached her hands out for warmth. All the inmates gathered around, a person that Clem didn't get a very good introduction to, Mike, helped Luke over to a seat by her. She gave him a thankful nod at him before he took his seat.
Luke's physical state had improved, Carver had just enough mercy in his cold heart to let him rest up. The color in his skin had returned and the pain in his chocolate brown eyes had almost faded. His face lit up like a lightbulb when he saw Clem enter the pen, but it returned to an expression of seriousness. Kenny and Mike conversed with a guard back in the armory, Bonnie. She said that she had a plan to help out the inmates that night. Clementine thought it as a blessing.
"Come on, Bonnie said she could help us get out of the pen if we can get the PA system going. Second she hears it, she'll run over and spring us." Mike adds, folding his arms and leaning back in his plastic patio chair. Clementine nodded, she had to make her very own vote count.
"Well, genius, I don't think you explained how we're going to get through that herd that's coming our way." Kenny said in a annoyed tone, Mike glared at him. Clem thought about it for a moment, yes, the whole idea of a herd in their way was a bit of a shock, but she's walked through herds before. Jane was about to say something, but Clem cut her off.
"There's a way to get past walkers without being noticed, you just have to cover yourself with their blood and guts, they'll think you're one of them. I've done it before." Kenny's eyes widened, but then he knew what she meant. That was how she and Lee got out of the Marsh house, but Lee didn't go much farther than that.
"She's right. Once we make it through the herd, we meet up at Parkers Run." Jane adds, folding her arms and giving the evil-eye to Clem for stealing her "Spotlight".
"Sounds great." Clem said, but Luke wasn't quite sold on the idea. "It's not great."
Luke? Why the hell is he disagreeing with this, doesn't he want to get out of here? We need to leave tonight, and thats how it's gonna be. Clementine thought to herself. His eyes dart over to Rebecca and Sarah.
"Well, we're ready to leave people behind." Jane muttered, but she was unlucky enough for everyone to hear what she said.
"We're not leaving anyone behind! The plan doesn't change, we're leaving tonight." Riley stated, and thank god for it.
"Alright then, I guess we're leaving today, who's gonna sett off the speakers?" Luke asked while getting up into a wobbly standing position. Trying not to put much weight on his wounded leg. And eventually, everyones eyes meet up on Clementine. She sighed in defeat.
"Wait, n-no, it's too dangerous, someone else needs to do it, not her." Luke stutters and Riley doesn't even try to stop her. She knew that she couldn't.
"Come on Clem," Kenny says, leading Clem away from the fire pit and towards a long line of rope hanging down from the roof, it was attached to a wheel like object at the top, but Clementine couldn't help but think to herself how Carver could've missed this. Clem grasped the rope tightly, and Mike pulled down, sending her upwards.
"Clem, the speakers will be in his office, it already has music in it so all you have to do is turn it on, and when you're done meet us in the stockroom." Rebecca said, and Clem nodded.
"Be careful!" Luke calls out from below and Riley gives her a friendly wave.
"I will!"
Now on the roof, Clem heads over to the skylight directly above his office, the bastard has tinted windows, she cant see in till she gets in. Clem lifts up the skylight and jumps inside, the familiar smell of rotting wood and musk manage to creep back inside Clem's head, making her anger for Carver grow larger and larger.
The hairs on the back of her neck started to rise and the air became deathly cold, someone was standing in the doorway, and Clem knew exactly who it was.
"What happened to you?" Clem asked without turning around, an inner sadness and depression tried to fill Clem's heart again. Just the thought of her own cousin, her family, being turned into a monster . Bella wasn't one for talking, and when she did, she was a giggly, innocent, harmless girl. Only around three years had passed, making her sixteen.
"What happened to Bella?" Clem asked again, except with more anger and fire in her words. She finally turned to face her "Cousin". She stood in the doorway, her eyes illuminating her face, which was hiding in the shadows. She giggled and twirled, then took a few steps into the room.
"I am Bella, but the voices have taken control. Those men in their white coats said that my parents and I would be safe in their care, the next day I found Mommy and Daddy dead in their chamber. And...I made their brain burst. Don't you see, Clemmy clue? It's like they put souls in my head, and..and..They want me to break you, Clemmy clue!"
And in seconds, she was gone. Vanished without a trace.
Clem shook her head and tried to get back to the matter at hand, she walked over to the corner of the room and looked around for the speaker, it was underneath a pile of files and documents, she threw them off the side and they scattered around on the floor. She turned it on and thankfully it worked. She could hear the store announcements and sales from the inside and the outside of Howes.
Clem wanted Carver's head on a platter, she wanted to kill him. For everything he's done. Her eyes went dark, and her hands bawled up into fists. And he thinks he can getaway with it, the thought made Clem want to laugh. If anyone stands in her way from killing him, they better wish they were dead.
Clem bursts out of the room and into the hallway, walking down the creaking steps and into the main quad, there were guards scattered around, but she wasn't afraid of being caught anymore. She walks in the shadows. The others were probably already waiting for her in the stockroom, but Clem's taking a bit of a detour, just in case the group is being held up.
Clementine dashes into the armory and quickly looked around. Clear. All the Ak's were gone and a few shells were scattered around on the floor, she quickly picked up two and placed them in her pocket. There was another skylight, she's studied the routes on the roof. She knows what she's doing. She gets a grip on one of the large metal shelves and pushed herself up. Continuing the process, she finally makes it up to the roof.
The cold, midnight air hit the bare areas on her face and hands. But kept her mind straight on one thing. Carver. Suddenly, the greenhouse door opens, rough and fast, and out comes Troy. He raises his Ak-12 to fire at her, but she's too quick. She ducks and charges at him. She kicks him in the chest and his Ak crashes to the ground.
"You little bitch!" He grabs onto her shoulders and sends a fist flying to her face, but she stands her ground, like she always did. Suddenly, Troy jumps her and slams her against the concrete roof. Her vision turned blurry, but she fought the darkness that was creeping into the corner of her eyes. Troy raised a fist to punch her again, but a knife plunged into his back, and before she knew it, Troy was just a corpse.
With the little strength she had, she pushed him off to be looking straight at Kenny's heart warming face. He held out an arm for her, and took it eagerly.
"Come on, we gotta get out of here." He ushered her, they made for the fire escape. But before they could even make it over the side, a gunshot rocketed through the air, and Kenny collapsed. Holding his shoulder, but unable to keep his balance, he fell over the side. The last thing he heard before his life ended was Clementine's screams.
