Crunch… crunch… crunch…

The leaves crackling under my shoes are being incredibly loud – far too loud for a stealthy approach like the one we're doing. Hopefully a walker's hearing deteriorates as much as the rest of its body, though I'm not entirely convinced.

My breath hitches in my throat with each step I take, and my eyes start darting about as my mind goes into panic mode. There are so god-damned many of them out here in the woods! Luckily I'm camped out behind a big oak tree so that I'm not in a direct line of sight, but how in the world are we going to get out of this?

"Clem…" Luke whispers, motioning with two fingers to sprint over to the direction he's pointing. I look at him like he's crazy, but he insists that I go, so on the count of three I tiptoe as quietly as I can behind a group of like five walkers at least.

We've been at this game all night long and so far it's managed to work. Luke's plan is this: move as quickly and quietly as possible, stay together at all times, only use a gun when you have nothing else around (not that I have any bullets), and always keep the road on your left shoulder. He said earlier in the evening that the road will lead us straight to the hardware store.

When I asked why we couldn't just stay on the road instead of wandering through the woods, he believed that we'd be less likely to get spotted or attacked if we were hidden in the brush.

Yeah, great idea there, Luke!

Luke rushes over as well, careful not to alert any of the walkers as we bend down and hide in the bushes once again.

"What are we gonna do?" I whisper, "There has to be hundreds of them out here!"

"Umm…" he murmurs, picking up a decently-sized tree branch, "this might be the dumbest idea I've had all night, but it's better than nothing."

"That's what you say about all your plans!"

"The good ones are always the dumbest ones," he tries explaining before tossing the branch deep into the forest, "Okay, now!"

The two of us move forward as the walkers go and check out the noise, and as we skid to a stop just beside the road, we pant and have to stop to catch our breath. Unfortunately according to Luke we've barely gotten halfway to the hardware store. This would be much easier with a car, but obviously that option's out of the picture.

For the next four hours or so, we walk towards Howe's, occasionally having to run due to the herd slowly creeping up on us. For the most part though, we've been pretty successful.

The first rays of sunlight drop down through the treeline and onto our faces, spraying the air with morning dew as I struggle to keep my eyes open. I haven't had a chance to sleep all night, and if that's any indication then I likely won't be able to for a while. This really sucks.

"How ya holding up, Clem?" Luke asks, breaking me out of my stupor.

"Tired, but okay. How about you?"

"I'm alright actually. Nick and I used to pull all-nighters like this all the time back in college," he explains, a small smirk growing as he reminisces about the good old days.

"What was college like?" I ask, curious about the things that I'd never get to experience.

"It was a blast," he remarks, "Nick and I shared a dorm together, so pretty much every weekend we'd invite some friends over for parties and beer and shit like that. But we only stayed for two years, since… well, let's just say we had our differences with the dean. The dean's like the principal of your school."

"You got kicked out?" I conclude, putting the pieces together.

"Yeah, I guess you could say that."

"What did you do?"

"Well," he begins, laughing at the stupidity of it all, "One night we kind of got a little too drunk, and we wanted to go out and have a grand old time. So, Nick and I jumped across the rooftops of some people's dorms and threw toilet paper all over campus."

"Really?" I ask, trying to control my laughter. Everything's funnier when you don't get enough sleep. "That sounds stupid!"

"Yeah, it was. The trick was not to look down though, otherwise you would've fallen off the roof. But, uh, the real problem was when Nick decided to jack the dean's car and go for a joyride in it. I found Nick the next morning with the car smashed into an office building, and then we got kicked out."

"Geez," I laugh, kicking over a stone, "The most I ever got in trouble was for letting our class snake out of its cage. It went over to some of the other girls in my class, and they screamed until I put him back in."

"And here I had you figured for the squeaky-clean type. Guess I was wrong," Luke jokes, beckoning for me to follow him. Thank god that Luke's good company, otherwise I'd probably be grunting and complaining the whole time. He seems to be the kind of guy who can lift other people's spirits up in a time of crisis.

As for me, I can't stop thinking about what I said to Kenny. God, I must've sounded like such a jerk last night, and now I might not even be able to tell him I'm sorry. It was just a stupid, heat of the moment outburst from me, and I totally shouldn't have reacted that way.

I hope he can forgive me.

"Hold up," Luke orders, placing his arm across my shoulders to prevent me from going any further. I hear muffled cries, but I don't see anything as he tells me to get down.

"What's the problem?" I whisper, holding out Matthew's hunting knife that we picked up after I told Luke how he died.

"Walkers are surrounding somebody…" he replies somberly, holding out his own machete, "Should we go help them?"

Looking up, I see the figure he's talking about. It's a man – not very tall with short brown hair, khaki pants and a collared shirt that clearly has fresh blood stains on it. His fresh blood stains.

"No," I say, and Luke looks at me like I've lost my mind.

"He's gonna get eaten alive out here, kid! We can't just ignore this!"

"There's too many of them, and he's gonna get nabbed either way. If we go and try to help, the only thing that's gonna do is bring more of them on top of us. We have to keep moving."

"What if it was you?!" Luke questions, trying to guilt-trip me. But I've been through so much stuff over the past two years that something like this doesn't even phase me anymore. My life is all about survival now.

I wonder what my family would think if they saw me like this.

"I'd tell you to run. Especially if I was already bitten."

"Clem, that could just be from him killing one of those things!"

"If you want to stay hidden from the walkers, then we need to keep going."

With a heavy sigh and one shake of his head, Luke relents as I take off ahead of him. I know that it sounds harsh, but we've got to stay focused on getting our friends back. Just like I was taught, we can't control what happens to other people out here, not anymore. Our group is the main priority.

After what seems like an hour and a half of not speaking to each other, Luke finally decides that now is a good time to call me out on it.

"That was definitely not cool, Clementine."

"We couldn't have saved him either way."

"The least we could've done is try!" he exclaims, rubbing his hands through his hair like he always does when he's upset. "That guy's probably dead by now, and we just walked away. What if Nick and I left you out in those fish traps?"

"That was different…" I mention, turning to face him.

"How?"

"I wasn't swarmed by walkers and already bitten!"

"You wouldn't have lasted a day out there!"

"I'VE BEEN DOING THAT FOR OVER A YEAR!"

I didn't mean to yell at him, but there was this need deep inside of me that had to prove that my actions were justifiable.

"I'm sorry… but you don't last this long out in the woods by being nice. If things were different, then yeah, I'd think we should've helped that guy. But we couldn't take the chance," I explain, calming down a little bit after my tirade.

Boy, does Luke seem speechless. I guess that it was surprising for me to blow up at him, and I think it must be a combination of me being tired as well as wanting to find the rest of them.

Though come to think of it, it was just last night that I exploded at Kenny as well. What's gotten into me?

"Howe's shouldn't be that much farther," Luke mentions, looking kind of sheepish, "Come on."

Later that day…

"Clem, keep your eyes open. Now ain't the time to be sleeping, we're almost there!"

"But that's what you said two hours ago…" I complain, my eyes drooping and my body feeling like it's going to collapse at any moment.

"I mean it this time, though. Look over there."

Sure enough, there's a road sign for Howe's hardware store pointing straight ahead. The board is tattered and ruined, but you can still see some of it.

"What are we gonna do once we get there?" I ask.

"Well, we can't exactly ring the doorbell," he muses, trying hard to keep himself awake at this point as well, "We need a way to get them all free… And we need to let them know about the herd. One of their radios might do the trick."

"How so?"

"We'll have to give it to Carlos or Rebecca or someone, but it won't be easy," he explains as the store starts to come into view. "They've usually got guards watching everything, but I know a couple of people on the inside who might be able to help us out. We'll give them one of the radios to let 'em know where the herd's coming from."

Gulping, my mind races back to when Sarah and I were hiding underneath the cabin that day. He sounded like Ben, but if his actions with Carver were any indication, then it might not be the same shy, skinny college kid that I remember.

"What's the matter?" Luke asks, noticing my hesitance.

"It's nothing," I reply, "So, what do I do once I get inside?"

"I'll go try to convince some of them to spring the group out, while you go for the radios. We'll have to wait until nightfall so that they won't find you in there, but I'll lead you in the right direction. Once you grab them, just meet me outside and I'll hand one to Carlos. Sound good to you?"

"Yeah, alright."

Later that evening…

"Okay, this is it," Luke whispers to me as we sneak in through a busted garage door. One of the people must've bumped it with truck pretty badly. "We have to be super quiet inside here. Follow me."

This feels like one of those spy movies that I secretly watched with my dad as a kid. My mom always told him that I was too young to be watching that kind of stuff, but occasionally we'd sneak a peek when she wasn't around. If only I had some night-vision goggles or something – now that'd be cool!

The store seemed even bigger inside than it did on the outside, with all the crates, shelves and supplies. Carver's group had a ton of food in here, it seems, but I don't voice my thoughts. Even though it looks like a really secure setup here, it's still run by a tyrannical maniac named Carver. I don't even want to imagine what he's done to the rest of our friends while we've been away.

Luke leads me over to a door that reads: "Employees Only", and I know that's where I need to grab the radios.

"Be careful in there, okay?" he says, giving me a quick hug of reassurance, "If anything happens in there, just come straight back. It ain't worth risking your own life."

"Got it," I reply as I slip into the shadows.

The first thing I notice as I creep inside is that there's a lady with a bush for a hairdo standing watch with one of the walkie-talkies in her hand. Fortunately for me, she doesn't seem to notice I'm here, but I'm not going push my luck by staying any longer than I need to. As quiet as a mouse, I move towards what seems to be a charging station with at least four radios just sitting there, ripe for the plucking.

How did they get electricity here too?

Stealthily, I take two radios in each of my hands and scoot back over to where I came from. Wow, this was a lot easier than I thought it would be! Why was Luke so worried? These guards don't seem very intelligent to me.

Opening the door as quietly as possible, I internally chant in victory. Things are going just swimmingly.

But the next few moments become just a big blur. A painful, excruciating blur.

"Who the fuck are you?!" yells one of the guards as he spots me coming out. Taking his assault rifle, he bashes my stomach and sends me to the ground, where he proceeds to beat me into submission.

There are a few shots to my face, and I can already taste the blood forming inside my mouth. It's a metallic, disgusting taste, and now my ears are ringing.

"St-stop! Please…" I splutter out, reaching one hand out in mercy while the other one is trying to clutch all my injured parts at once. I think shooting me would've been a nicer punishment than this…

"Shut your fucking mouth," he spits before taking the butt end of his rifle and slamming it down on my head.

That's when everything goes black.

AN: I'm sorry for hurting Clementine again! But I want to change up the story a little bit, and just wait until you see what I've got planned with Carver! Ooh, it's gonna be so much fun to write him… He he he… Anyway, hope you're liking it so far! Be sure to leave a review, they're always helpful and appreciated!