Reasons for Living Chapter 6: Rising
Clementine:
Clementine opened her eyes and felt the pale gray light of early morning. Might as well get some fresh air. She pulled the blanket off, folded it, and placed it back on the couch. She quietly walked, hoping the creaking wooden floorboards of the cabin wouldn't wake up anyone else. She opened the front door, and stepped out on the front porch of the cabin.
"Well, you're an early riser aren't ya." Clem jumped as she heard Andrew's voice to her right, and saw him sitting on a chair. "Sorry, didn't mean to startle you."
"Good morning Andrew." Clementine said as she tried to find a good excuse to go back inside.
" Morning Clem." Luke said. Clem turned around and saw Luke walking around the corner. He had his machete over his back, and his flashlight was in his left hand. "Hey, could you do me a favor and keep watch for a bit? I've been up all night, and Alvin'll be shifting in for you in a couple of minutes."
Crap. Luke had saved her life less than 12 hours ago. She couldn't say no to him for something so simple. "Sure thing."
"Thanks. There's a chair over there, along with a pair of binoculars. See ya later." Clementine walked around the corner to the other half of the porch and sat down.
"So kid, where you from? Before all of this, I mean." Andrew said from around the corner.
"Georgia." The last thing she wanted to do was give Andy any clue that she knew who he was, but she had already told Luke where she was from. She didn't want to lie to them, or at least look like she was lying to them.
"That's funny, I grew up there too. My parents owned a small dairy farm."
"Well, its a small world, I guess." Clementine remarked as she stared blankly into the forest in front of her. Don't say anything else, please don't say anything else...
"So, what brings you up here to North Carolina?"
"I was traveling with a man, Omid. I met him shortly after everything started." That was true if a three and a half month time gap counted as 'shortly after'.
"By the way, we're all real sorry 'bout locking you up last night. For what it's worth, we did decide we were gonna fix up your arm in the morning."
"Thanks."
The two of them sat in dead silence for a few minutes. "Hey Andy." Clementine heard Alvin say. Clementine rubbed her eyes as she got up and handed the binoculars to Alvin who was already walking towards her.
"By the way kid, how did you manage to get into the house last night?"
"You left the window open." Clementine said quietly. As much as she was upset that he wasn't going to help her, he did help her unintentionally. He didn't need any more trouble with his wife.
"Oh..." Alvin just turned around and walked away from her. Clementine walked back to the front door when it opened up right in front of her.
"Morning Clementine. You're coming with us." Pete was standing right under the mantel of the front door, holding a rifle in his hands.
"You weren't kidding when you said we were going first thing in the morning." Clementine said.
"I'm just glad you managed to wake up this early all on your own. You'll fit right in with the rest of us." He said. "NICK, HURRY UP!" He called inside the cabin.
"I'M COMING, I'M COMING!" Nick yelled back as he walked out of the dining room and towards the front door.
"What took you so damn long?" Pete asked,
"Couldn't find my hat." Nick said as he walked past Pete and Clementine and headed down the front porch.
"Safety on that thing?" Pete asked, referencing the rifle in Nick's hands.
"Yes uncle Pete." Nick said wearily. Clem followed Pete and Nick down the stairs and down the path to the river.
AN: I know this is a really short chapter, but I figured I needed to have some more Andrew St. John screen time (page time? text time?) before episode 2 of the game comes out.
I want to give a huge shout out to Omid over on the telltale games forums for making the cover image for this story. It couldn't have turned out any better.
As always, don't forget to leave a quick review, and follow and favorite if you haven't already. You're support has driven this story to the first page in the 'sort stories by reviews' in less than a month. You guys are awesome.
Thanks again, and I hope you enjoyed.
-Michael7123
PS: The next chapter will be longer and coming soon.
