The Walking Dead: Clementine and a dog named Sam
Chapter 7: a place to call home
Greetings, fellow users. Here I deliver to you the next chapter of my story, and if it's not too much trouble, can't any of you mind leaving a review? It would really mean a lot to me and I hate to think I'm putting a lot of work into my stories for nothing. I would really appreciate it.
The man in the red and grey sweater (introduced as Walter by his partner Matthew) held the glass door open for Clementine, Kenny, and Matthew as they walked inside the ski lodge. When they were inside, Clementine watched in amazement as she studied the sky lodge.
The entire place was full of decorations such as Christmas lights hanging around the ceilings and the wooden support beams, flags of different countries hanging on the ceilings, with peaceful music feeling the air. A nice, warm fire kept the entire place warm, and to top it off, there was a Christmas tree near the wooden stairs.
Walter walked beside Kenny and Clementine, both of them saying nothing for a moment. "Kenny and Sarita have been staying with us for several weeks. Used to be a ski lodge, obviously, so we have plenty of food." he paused just for a second and began walking up the small steps. "And believe it or not, we still get some power from that wind turbine out front. We tend to keep most of the lights off at night to avoid drawing attention. But after we found this stuff in storage, we couldn't resist making an exception."
Clementine smiled for a moment as Kenny began to mimic what Walter was saying when he began talking about the stuff in storage they found. He waved his right hand into the air while he continued to mimic his words.
Walter paused for a moment and turned back towards the duo, seeing Clementine and Matthew with their heads lowered and their right hands over their mouths, trying their best not to laugh. "What's funny?"
"What?" Matthew inquired, pretending nothing had even happened.
"Oh nothing, Walt." Kenny assured, walking past him for a moment before patting his left hand against his back. "Walter here is one smart son of a bitch. Makes a mean can of beans, too.
"Well, why don't you two catch up while I get some dinner started?" Walter suggested, smiling as his partner walked beside him. "Care to help, Matthew?"
"Sure, as long as you don't drop that cooking pot on me again?" Matthew replied, playfully shoving his partner shoulders.
"Very funny." Walter frowned, shifting his attention back towards the exit when Luke, Nick, Alvin, and Rebecca had walked inside, studying the inside of the ski lodge like Clementine did moments ago. "Please, make yourselves at home. You can leave your things over there."
Rebecca looked towards where he was pointing, and almost immediately, she showed an un-trusting attitude towards them. "The hell we will."
"Yeah, I'm holding onto my rifle, thanks." Nick declined, feeling the same way as Rebecca did.
"You're our guests here." Walter reassured them. "There's no need to worry."
"Tell him to put his gun down, then." Nick quickly responded, referring to Kenny who was still holding his rifle in his hand.
Walter turned towards Kenny for support, wanting to show the other group they were trustworthy. "Kenny?"
Kenny hesitated for a moment before turning to Clementine for support, due to her being a member of their group. "Will you vouch for these people, Clem? If you tell them their good, then I'm good."
"Hey, your friend there was the one aiming a gun at me on the bridge." Nick argued.
"Only because you drew first!" Mathew countered, gaining a slightly angry face.
"We're cool, okay? Hey, hey, we're cool, we're cool." Luke quickly assured them, sensing things were about to get bad again.
"Clementine?" Kenny said, still wanting an answer from her if she trusted this group or not.
Clementine looked back at both groups for a moment while they were arguing with one and other. She did not want no-one else to get into more fights. "Everyone, calm down."
Everyone obeyed her request and remained quiet for a moment, the only thing they could hear was the music in the background. The door opened shortly after where Sarita had leaded Carlos, Sarah, and Pete into the cabin.
Sarah got a little enthusiastic when she spotted the Christmas tree nearby. "Dad! Look! A Christmas tree!"
"Not now, Sarah." Carlos declined, placing his hand onto her arm. Obviously, he wanted to make sure this place was okay before letting her out from his sight.
"Isn't it great?" Sarita said to Sarah. "We found it all in storage."
"It's amazing." Sarah admitted, admiring all the Christmas decorations around the ski lodge.
Kenny looked towards his girlfriend for a moment, and hearing her voice reminded him how gentle and caring she was to him and others, and this caused his expression to soften.
The former cabin group finally decided to place their items down on the small wooden stand. Luke was the first to walk over there, and set his machete down. Nick followed suit, and then the others did, too; setting their weapons and supplies down.
"Good." Sarita smiled, beckoning for the others to follow her. "If you'll all follow me, I'll show you where you can sleep."
As soon as everyone else was gone, Kenny beckoned for Clementine to follow him where they could talk privately and catch up on old times. The duo walked towards what looked like a small living room, with comfortable chairs and a nice warm fire.
The two sat down on a long sofa while Sam, who had been following Clementine, laid himself down near couch, making himself comfortable. Clementine and Kenny merely stared at one and other for a moment, not exactly sure what to say.
"Still wearing this dirty old thing, huh?" Kenny teased, raising his right hand to tap the tip of Clementine's hat. "You know, I half expected to see Lee walk up next to you. You guys were like two peas in a pod." his smile dropped for a moment when he just realized what he said. "Oh, shit, I didn't mean to...It's just hard not to think about it, you know?"
"I got him killed." Clementine replied, her head lowered in sadness.
"What?" Kenny inquired, shock to what she had just said.
"It's my fault." Clementine admitted, feeling like she could cry in sadness, but found she had no tears to cry out. "He saved me though."
"Aw, darling, don't say that. I know that ain't true. He made a choice, same as the rest of us." Kenny assured her, but found his words were not making much progress. "He was a hell of a guy. But I knew he would save you. That guy had a fire in him, sure as shit."
Kenny sighed for a moment as he thought back to all the times he and Lee helped one and other. "Lee and I had our differences, that's for sure. When my son...Well...he took care of him. I'll never forget that." he shrugged off the memory of his best friend and changed the subject between them. "So. Where did you end up?"
"After Lee, I was alone. I found Christa and Omid, but...it didn't last." Clementine answered, still showing a sad expression on her face. "Omid, well, he didn't make it. I got separated from Christa a couple of nights ago."
"Sounds like it ain't been easy for you." Kenny admitted, not being able to even imagine what she had been through these past couple of years. "I'm sorry, darling. I wish I could have found you sooner. But everything's going to be fine now."
Although Clementine was more than happy to be with Kenny again, there was a question she could not get off of her mind: how was Kenny here? "Christa told me you were dead."
"I am! This is all a dream." he joked, laughing for a moment while Clementine merely gazed at him with a 'not-funny' expression. "Sorry. Bad joke. For some reason, I tried to save that fucking shitbird Ben. Then it turned into a damn cluster. Couldn't help the kid. But I got out. Long story short, I got lucky. Real lucky. Spend a long time alone after that. It, uh..."
Kenny paused for a moment as he closed his eyes, trying to hide back any sadness inside of him. He opened his eyes again and continued the rest of his story. "And then I met Sarita, thank God. Gosh, it's great to have you back."
At almost perfect timing with the end of his sentence, Sarita had returned and placed her left hand upon Kenny's shoulder. "You two catching up?"
"Clem, this is my girl, Sarita." Kenny introduced them both, turning towards his girlfriend for a moment. "Ain't she beautiful?"
"Nice to meet you, Clementine." Sarita replied smiling, looking towards near Clementine to see the dog resting. "Is this your dog?"
"Yeah, I found him a couple of days ago." Clementine answered, leaning her hand down to stroke Sam's head for a moment.
"Hey, Walt, you started dinner yet?" Kenny inquired, raising his voice slightly for the older man to hear him.
"Just about to do it now." Walter answered, walking towards the cafeteria to prepare dinner. "I'll get started. Give me a hand, Matthew."
"Sure." Matthew replied, walking with his partner to help with dinner.
The former cabin group returned downstairs after settling in, and Sarita was the first to greet them. She approached Carlos and Sarah, who she had taken a liking to. "Carlos, right? Mind if I steal your daughter for a secret mission?"
Sarah raised a slight smile and turned to her father for approval.
Although Carlos had some doubts with the rest of the group, he felt he could trust Sarita since she was kind to them. "Stay in sight, sweetie."
Sarita lead Sarah over to the Christmas tree so they could decorate it together to help brighten up the place. As long as Carlos did not keep constantly looking at his daughter ever two minutes, then it should be fun.
As for the rest of the group, Luke walked around Carlos with Nick and Pete behind, offering their assistance as a favour for letting them stay. "Can we do anything to help?"
"Could use a hand outside." Kenny answered, standing back to full height after he had been petting Sam, who reminded him of the dog Kenny use to own before all this began. "We got a lot of supplies we need to bring in before that storm hits."
"Sure." Luke agreed, walking towards the exit of the ski lodge with Pete and Nick beside him.
"Clem, why don't you help Walt and Matthew with dinner?" Kenny suggested before he left the area they were in to assist Luke, Nick and Pete.
Now that everyone had something to keep them occupied for a while, Clementine made her way towards the cafeteria to help out with dinner like Kenny suggested. She made her way over to Walter, who was stirring some food in a cooking pot with a wooden spoon, but as for Matthew, he seemed to be washing some bowls in a sink.
"Hey Clementine." Walter greeted, taking his spoon out from the cooking pot. "Settling in well enough?"
"Yeah, thanks." Clementine smiled, already being able to tell this man was nice like a couple of the other people she knew like Alvin, Luke, Katjaa, and a couple others.
"Excellent. Want to help me and Matthew prepare a little dinner?" Walter offered, smiling as he watched her observe the contents inside of the pot. He began stirring the food again while making conversation between them both. "So how do you know Kenny? He and Sarita have been a huge help. Matthew and I barely knew what to do around here the first week."
"It's true." Matthew admitted, drying some of the bowls with a towel.
"But Kenny, well, he never slows done." Walter admitted.
"It's a long story." Clementine admitted, unsure of where to start.
Walter paused for a moment and looked towards her with a sad expression. He shrugged it off as he continued to make dinner. "Connecting with people is so important. I don't know what I'd do without Matthew." he admitted, tipping some salt into the cooking pan.
"Probably go into a state of depression." Matthew teased, grinning across his face.
"Very funny." Walter sarcastically replied, turning back towards Clementine that brought him a couple of happy memories before all this began. "Gosh, you remind me of my students. I can't imagine what it's like growing up in the middle of all this."
"Everyone underestimates me." Clementine replied, showing she was useful in many ways despite her young age.
"I expect you have used that to your advantage." Walter wondered.
"Sometimes." Clementine admitted, shrugging her shoulders slightly before crossing her arms together.
"Smart girl." Walter smiled, dipping his spoon into the food to get a little piece for him to taste. "Hmm. Almost done. Would you do me the honour of tasting the first course, madam?"
"Sure." Clementine agreed, opening her mouth for a moment as Walter got a little more food and placed it near her mouth. He accepted some of the food, and swallowed it in almost a second. "Taste...Good. What is it?"
"Le Walter Surprise. An autumnal legume salad with a peace roux." he answered, talking in some kind of posh language that Clementine did not seem to understand. "It's peaches and beans. It's all we have got."
"Nothing else at all?" Clementine inquired, wondering what it was like to eat the same meal every day.
"Well, we do have a bag of dog food." Walter replied.
"Dog food? Think you could get some for my dog?" Clementine requested, noticing that her dog looked extremely hungry since she met him.
"Sure. I'll serve him some before dinner." Walter replied, looking towards one of the cans for a moment that he picked up and showed to Clementine. "Huh. Striking resemblance."
"(You're the third person to say that.)" Clementine thought to herself, rolling her eyeballs around.
"Anyway, I'll take it from here." Walter replied, carefully picking up the cooking pot in his hands up from the stove. He began humming a song to himself as he walked away from Clementine's sight.
Since she did not do much to help with dinner except for tasting it, Clementine wondered off on her own to check out the ski lodge more. She knelt down to the radio and picked up one of the CD's sitting beside it. ""Cousin Jared's concert, October 13th, 1998.""
She looked towards the Christmas tree that was currently being decorated by Sarita and Sarah, and was happy to see it brought back some memories. "I haven't seen one of these since..."
While Clementine was observing the place, nearby, Sarita and Sarah were still decorating the Christmas tree together. Sarita began humming a song to herself that Sarah seemed to take an interest to.
"What's the song you're humming?" Sarah inquired.
"Good King Winceslas." Sarita answered, tying another Christmas bulb to the tree. "It's my favourite Christmas song."
"What's it about?" Sarah asked.
"Well, it's about a king that brings food to a poor man. The King and his servant march all night through a cold winter storm to reach the man. The storm is very strong. After a long time, it gets so cold that the servant can't go on. But the king tells the servant to just step in his tracks." Sarita explained, taking a breath as she began singing some of the song to Sarah. ""Mark my footsteps, good my age. Tread thou in them boldly. Thou shalt find the winter's rage freeze thy blood loss coldly.""
"I don't get it." Sarah replied, unsure to what these strange words meant exactly in English terms.
Sarita chuckled a little in response before trying to explain the song to her in a kind way. "It means that doing good things for people can be good for you, too."
"But the servant wouldn't have been out there in the first place if the king hadn't made him." Sarah queried, confused to how that was good.
"Good point." Sarita agreed, chuckling a little for a moment. She placed her hand upon her hip as she studied the tree before seeing a familiar face approach them both. "Clem, we could use some help. Here, Sarah, you take this and string them up over there."
Clementine helped out for a moment by stinging some more of the bulbs onto the tree.
"You knew Kenny before. It must be incredible to see him again." Sarita admitted, remembering back to the day she first met Kenny. "When I met him, well...He's so different now. But you must be so glad."
"Did he say anything about before?" Clementine inquired, wondering how he had coped since the death of his wife and son.
"No. He won't talk about before I met him." Sarita replied while she adjusted some of the decorations across the Christmas tree to make sure they did not fall off. She leaned back out to see the young girl staring at her. "Everything takes a little coaxing these days."
The trio took a couple of steps back to observe the Christmas tree. It looked just about finished, but Sarita still had one more decoration to put on top. "Perfect. Now we just need the topper."
"We always had an angel on top of our tree." Sarah replied, her left hand placed upon her right arm.
"My family didn't celebrate Christmas, but I still love the decorations." Sarita admitted, happy to celebrate a tradition that she never took part in before the dead risen and took over.
Clementine wondered off while she was talking to look for a topper for them. She made her way up the wooden stairs where she could hear a conversation between some of the former cabin group.
"It's crazy. Why would they follow us this far?" Rebecca wondered, but deep down, she already knew the answer why.
"We can't be sure." Carlos admitted, turning towards the wooden stairs for a moment when Clementine had arrived.
"It's been a week, man." Alvin reminded them, assuring them that they were miles away from Carver's group. "We got to be out of the woods." he placed his hands into his pockets upon finishing his sentence.
"We can't be sure. They might be tracking us." Carlos suggested with a worried expression across his face.
"Tracking?" Alvin repeated, taking his hands out from his pockets. "Who do you think they are, ninjas?"
Rebecca merely shook her head in response before noticing Clementine had arrived, and this only just reminded her of what happened when she climbed up the tower. "Clem, Luke said you saw some people in the valley?"
"People? Way down there? How?" Alvin asked, wondering how anyone could see that far down.
"She's got binoculars, genius." Rebecca reminded him, a hint of sarcasm in her voice.
"Yeah, yeah." he replied, crossing his arms together.
"What did you see, Clementine?" Carlos inquired; worried that he may be right about Carver's group still tracking them.
"I saw lights." Clementine simply answered.
"Which way did they go?" Rebecca inquired.
"Back into the woods." Clementine answered, but this was technically a lie since she had no idea where they went.
Carlos now felt somewhat relieved that there was a chance whoever those people were in the valley might have gone the other way, but he did not want to take any risks. "We cannot take any chances. We leave at dawn."
"But we're safe here for tonight, right?" Rebecca asked, only to get no respond from any of them if they were going to be alright.
"Clementine, you talk to that man Walter, right?" Carlos inquired, seeing Clementine helping Walter with dinner from the view where they were standing. "What did he say? You didn't tell him anything about us, did you? We have to be careful. They could be hiding something."
"No, nothing's wrong. I didn't tell him anything." Clementine reassured them, rubbing her left hand up her right arm. "We just talked about Kenny, and I helped him make dinner."
"Look, I don't care what that man said. We're staying here tonight." Alvin replied, trying to be serious with Carlos, but deep down, he was concerned for his wife."
Carlos could see there was no changing their minds about leaving tonight, so just accepted their wishes for now. However, he did have a little task for Clementine while they were here. "Just talk to the rest of them. They trust you. See what you can find out. I'm going to go find Luke."
Seconds after he was gone, Rebeca felt herself feeling somewhat light-headed, possibly from walking for five days when so close to giving birth. "Honey, I don't feel good."
"Bec, what's wrong?" Alvin inquired, kneeling down to her with a concerned face.
"I just need something to drink." Rebecca requested, this time, she did need him to do something for her.
"You got it." Alvin agreed, standing back up to get his wife a drink. "I'll be right back."
Before doing back downstairs, Clementine looked into a small box where she saw three Christmas decorations left there: a bulb, a star, and an angel. She was about to take the star, but remembered how Sarah mentioned she had an angel on top of her tree, and it might make her happy to see the angel.
Once she had the angel for the topper, Clementine made her way back to the top of the stairs and leaned over to place the angel carefully on top of the tree.
Down below, Sarah looked up to observe the topper Clementine had placed on top of the tree that caused her to smile. "She looks so cool!"
Sarita leaned up from the inside of the tree and observed the same topper on top of the tree. "Beautiful. I used to love this time of year. You know, now that your friends are here, this place is starting to feel like a real home."
She sighed for a moment while remembering the kindness the two partners shared with them. "Matthew and Walter are amazing people. Honestly, it's dangerous to be this kind. But they can't help it."
Nearby, Matthew and Walter were setting out clean dishes on the dinner tables, and Matthew had just heard what she said about them. "I honestly fail to see how being kind is dangerous, Rita."
"It was just a little joke, Matty." Sarita replied, turning her attention back towards Clementine.
"Matty? Rita?" Clementine inquired, puzzled to why they both just called each other that.
"The first time he met he called me Rita. So I call him Matty now. It's kind of our little war." Sarita explained, keep a hand placed to her hip.
"A war I plan to win." Matthew added, grinning as he moved over to the next table.
"Sure you will." Sarita replied, shifting her attention back towards Clementine for a moment to ask her something important about her boyfriend. "Clem, I wanted to ask you...Does Kenny seem different to you? I didn't know him before, and well...I'm curious. He has good days and bad days like everyone else. But lately I get the feeling he's...struggling."
"He does seem different than I remember." Clementine admitting, recalling earlier when he tried to make a bad joke, and how he looked a little happier than before.
"In what say?" Sarita inquired.
"I'm not sure." Clementine admitted.
Before any of them could discuss anything further, they were greeted by the same person they had just been talking about. "Well, you three have been busy."
"Kenny!" Sarita greeted, praying that he did not happen to hear what they were saying about him. "Isn't it great?"
Kenny smiled for a moment as he watched his girlfriend pick up a box or left-over decorations. He placed his hands upon the same box, offering to take it. "I got it, hon."
"I think I can manage, Ken." Sarita assured him, remembering how much he liked to help her.
"Hon, please, let me carry it?" Kenny requested, taking the box calmly into his hands without her approval before walking away.
As he was walking away, Sarita sighed as she wondered why he liked to help out more than he needed to. "Always has to play the gentleman. But I'll tell you, when I met him, he couldn't lift a fly." she paused for a moment and showed a sad expression, and sent Clementine away to change the subject. "Why don't you see if your friends are ready for dinner, Clementine?"
Clementine nodded as she made her way back upstairs to check on Rebecca. As soon as she was up, she noticed the older woman still looked a little unwell. "Are you okay?"
"Just got a little dizzy." Rebecca replied, lowering her head in sadness as scary thoughts raced around her mind. "I can't even take care of myself. How am I supposed to raise a child? I mean, how can anyone now? Everything's fucked up."
"It's not going to be easy." Clementine admitted, rubbing her hand against her arm modestly.
Rebecca lowered her head in sadness, realizing the young girl's words were right. "I know it's going to be hard. But at the same time, I already feel a little less lonely." she placed her hand upon her belly. "Because I know that no matter what happens, I'll get to meet someone new."
Rebecca paused for a moment as she kept her hand onto her stomach, feeling her baby move around inside that made her happy. "She's kicking. Want to listen?" she offered, looking down towards her stomach where she began talking to her unborn baby. "That food smells good, huh? It's okay. We're going to get you something soon."
"Can I?" Clementine requested, wondering what it was going to be like to hear a baby kicking. She carefully placed the side of her head near Rebecca's stomach, hearing a slight thumbing noise inside.
"She's going to be runner." Rebecca joked, raising a smile as Clementine took her head off from her belly. Her smiled soon dropped as she struggled to hold back her tears, confessing something to Clementine that she had not told anyone else, even her husband. "It's not his."
Clementine was not really shocked about this since she already figured that out when speaking with Luke, but why she told her was a mystery. "Why are you telling me this?"
"I trust you. For some reason. And I can tell you've kept a few secrets." Rebecca explained, lowering her head down in sadness and fear. "If he finds out, he'll kill me. I don't know what to do...I can't believe I'm asking a little girl for advice. But I guess nothing is weird anymore."
"He won't kill you." Clementine assured, knowing that Alvin was nice just by looking at him.
Rebecca was about to reply further but suddenly changed the subject when Alvin had returned, carrying a bottle of water with him. "There's my man."
"You alright, baby?" Alvin inquired.
"I'm fine, you big dope." Rebecca assured, accepting the bottle of water from him.
"Just need to get some food in you." Alvin replied, turning around for a moment to thank Clementine for keeping his wife company. "Thanks for staying with her, Clem."
Clementine smiled in response as she made her way back downstairs with the others. At almost perfect timing, Walter had declared it was time for everyone to eat, and this was great news for those who had not eaten in a while. "Well everyone, dinner is served. Come on, let's eat."
Both groups made their way over towards the cafeteria, eager for something to eat. Every sat down on the wooden bench tables as Walter carried the pot around, giving everyone their dinner.
Luke sat down the opposite side from Nick, and noticed he had a somewhat worried expression across his face. "You okay, man?"
"Yeah. I'm just...I just wish I didn't overreact at the bridge." Nick replied, closing his eyes as the thoughts of shooting Matthew raced around his mind.
"Just try to forget about it." Luke advised, acting like a brotherly figure to him.
After everyone had settled down and eaten, Clementine was the only one to have not sat down yet. She was about to head over to Luke, who had his hand raised, until Kenny had suddenly called out to her. "Right here, Clem!"
Clementine looked towards both bench tables, trying to decide who to sit with. On the left side were Luke, Nick, Pete, Rebecca, Alvin, Sarah, and Carlos, all members from the cabin. On the right side were Kenny, Sarita, Matthew and Walter, all the members of the ski lodge.
Clementine continued looking towards both groups as she continued to try and decide who to sit with for dinner.
And the next chapter is complete. And in this chapter, I decided not to have Kenny lash out at Sarita and have him do it in a more calm and sensitive way. Stay tuned for the next chapter, and it might be the last one until Episode 3 has been released.
