Clementine, ran. She ran as fast as she could. Her breath came in ragged and torn gulps, as her chest heaved for air and her gut burned with a stitch that she forced herself to ignore. She didn't know if she was even running in the right direction anymore, she was alone and lost in the dark woods and there was nobody to help her find her. Fear tried to grip her, tendrils of horror and despair trying to slip into her mind, but the fierce and furious pace she ran at kept it at bay, for the time being. She could hear walkers behind her, somewhere, but she didn't dare to look back and check, focusing instead on the movement of her feet and the breath she sucked into her lungs as often as she could. With a final burst of speed, she broke through the tree line and was racing toward the cabin at full speed. She didn't dare pause, before throwing herself through the back door, slamming the door behind her.
"Clementine!" Carlos's surprised voice greeted her, and she mentally repressed her immediate desire to roll her eyes. She had been hoping to just speak to Luke and have him talk to Carlos, but, the situation called for the doctors help and she didn't have time to be picky about who she talked to. "Are you all right?" He asked, getting to his feet while Rebecca remained seated at the table and glared at Clementine angrily. Carlos glanced behind Clementine as if expecting someone to be following her, and she did a discreet check of her own to make sure she was still alone. She worked at slowing her breathing, holding the counter with one hand and her side with the stitch with the other. "Luke's not with you?" Carlos asked, causing Clementine to snap her eyes to his. Cold dread flooded her, as she looked between the two adults with fear in her eyes.
"Where's Alvin?!" Rebecca demanded, getting to her feet hurriedly. Clementine felt sweat begin to form which had nothing to do with her exhausting sprint to the cabin. She felt fear swamp her, stealing her newfound breath and she turned away, closing her eyes as she tried to force her heart to stop pounding so hard in her chest.
"What happened?" Carlos asked, though Clementine just shook her head and held out one hand, as if to fend him off as she heard his footsteps approaching her. "It's been hours..." Clementine opened her eyes and looked at the ceiling, trying to steady herself enough to speak. When her breathing finally calmed enough to allow her a few words, she turned to face the two worry stricken adults. "Where are they?!" Carlos demanded, seeing she was ready to speak.
"Pete got bit." She said, taking short pants of air between her words. Carlos and Rebecca both recoiled from her as if struck, Carlos closing his eyes in obvious grief.
"What?" Rebecca roared.
"What happened?" Carlos asked more calmly, though clearly still distressed by the news.
"Walkers." Clementine said. The one word alone was enough explanation for the adults, who's eyes first widened, and then closed in silent commiseration.
"My god..." Carlos muttered, turning away slightly and looking as if he were about to be sick. Clementine thought it odd that a doctor, who should really be used to such things by now, had such a weak stomach. But then she reasoned, perhaps it wasn't the action itself, so much as the fact that it was Pete who was his friend and had been a valued part of his group so long. Unlike the young girl who stumbled by with a dog bite and merely asked for help so she may go on her way.
"Where were you? Where were you exactly?!" Rebecca demanded, stepping closer menacingly. Clementine met the woman's furious gaze calmly, having seen far worse in the past hours than Rebecca's temper. She stubbornly held her tongue for as long as she could, before guilt over her childishness made her finally speak.
"We were down by the stream, checking the nets..." Clementine began. She took a deep breath, and proceeded to tell them, the whole, grizzly tale.
Clementine was frozen by the doors, her heart racing from both fear and adrenaline. She turned her eyes between the two men, uncertain if they truly expected that she be capable of removing a mans leg. Her eyes widened, as Nick took a deep breath and walked over to his uncle. He stood a moment, before snatching the saw from Pete's hands. Clementine saw his own hands wobble for a second, before he seemed to steady himself, his back straightening as he made his decision.
"You're gonna have to move Uncle Pete." He said gruffly. He gestured for Pete to sit between two crates on the opposite wall, effectively boxing him in so he couldn't move too much during the amputation. "Clementine, look around, see if you can't find something we can use as a tourniquet..." He said over his shoulder at her. Clementine stared at him in horror and awe. She couldn't have been the one to help Lee, she knew that as much as she loved Lee, she could never have done what Nick was preparing to do now. She saw a strength in him that he didn't seem to be aware he had, and she felt double the coward for not having that kind of strength for those she loved herself.
"O-okay..." She stuttered, forcing herself to push away from the wall. She edged her way around Pete, as he tried to move himself as his nephew directed. He threw her a crooked grin, but she was ashamed to find she couldn't return it. From the way his grin faded and the look in his eyes, she guessed she was staring at him in either abject horror, or just outright fear. She shook her head and hurried to the back of the shed, searching the shelves for anything she could give the two men to help the... process. "Wha- what's this..?" She asked, holding up a large glass jar.
"Bring it here, let me see..." Pete said, holding out a hand as he shifted himself on the floor. Clementine walked over and handed him the jar, trying her hardest to show only sympathy as she smiled weakly at him. He returned her weak grin gratefully, as he reached out and took the jar. He removed the lid and recoiled at the smell of whatever was inside. "My bettin' is on Moonshine..." She muttered. Clementine frowned, sure she should know what it was he meant, but she was completely clueless. She made a mental note to ask Luke, if he ever found them, or she made it out and found him. "Urgh," Pete grimaced, as he swallowed a small sip of the stuff in the jar. "Whiskey." He said, though Clementine couldn't tell if he was pleased or not by his discovery. However when Pete looked at her and grinned widely before taking another larger gulp, she hazarded a guess that he was pleased. "This'll do nicely thankyou Clementine," he said between swallows. "If there's anymore, bring a couple over - they're gonna come in mighty useful." He added, gesturing vaguely to the back shelf where she had found the jars.
"You shouldn't drink too much," Nick said, snatching the jar from his uncle, "this shit'll thin your blood too much." He said, taking a large swig from the jar himself. Clementine rolled her eyes as she went to get some more of the jars, at the rate those two were going, she would be the only sober one left. She paused as she saw a large rubber band, the kind used to secure fabric lids to jam jars. After a second of thought, she took the band too, and handed it to Nick when she got back over to them. Pete took another jar for himself from her pile, though he didn't start drinking immediate, so Clementine thought that might be a partial win for Nick. He gestured to a broken rake, and Clementine rushed to get it, bringing the long wooden handle and giving it to Pete when he held out his hand. He nodded his thanks, while Nick applied the rubber band just above Pete's shin. Both men took deep breaths, as Nick sank to his knees and Pete put the broken pole between his teeth.
"You ready for this?" Nick asked his uncle, taking a final swig of the alcohol before placing the saw against his uncles leg, just below the shin but well above the bite which adorned his uncle's ankle. Pete shook his head, and Clementine felt pity in her heart at his child like appearance. For all that these men were strong, they were afraid. She swallowed the lump in her throat and walked over to Pete, settling herself just behind him, and wrapping her arms around his torso, burying her face in his shoulder as she hugged him tightly.
Without further words, Nick began to saw. Pete screamed, and Clementine screamed with him. She thought she heard Nick screaming too, but she couldn't be certain, though she regularly heard him apologize in a small and broken voice. She couldn't bring herself to look. The whole time Nick sawed away at his uncles leg, Pete's screams piercing the air around them, she kept her eyes fiercely squeezed shut. She gave Pete her warmth, and as much comfort as she was able, but she could not bring herself to watch. She realized after some time, that Pete's screams had stopped. Either he had passed out, died, or Nick was finished. She forced herself to prize her eyes open, and through the narrow slits of her eyelids, she saw that Nick was dousing the fresh stump with a jar of the alcohol. She made herself open her eyes fully, and immediately wished that she hadn't as she was struck by the sight of so much blood everywhere, and Pete's discarded foot a short distance from his leg. She denied herself the urge to retch, instead loosening her hold on Pete's torso, finding his hand and gripping it tightly. She felt a weight in her heart shift, as he squeezed weakly back.
"Are you okay..?" As soon as the words left her mouth, she cursed herself an idiot. No matter who she was asking, the answer would be the same, and it wasn't likely to be a positive response. Nick glanced at her, and she felt the pain in his eyes like a physical blow. She nodded to him, and he returned the gesture, before turning his eyes back to the stump of his uncles leg, as he tried to stem the blood flow. Clementine forced herself to let go of Pete, easing her way around him until she hunkered down beside Nick. She gently rested her steadier hands over his shaking ones, taking over the task of bandaging the stump and gesturing that he try and clean up some of the spilled blood. She saw his adam's apple bob, as he swallowed heavily, before moving away to try and find something to soak up the blood.
"So..." Pete croaked quietly, as he removed the wooden pole from his mouth. Clementine eyed the deep teeth marks, pity in her heart, as he set the pole aside and grabbed a jar of Whiskey. "Ya think I'll be dancin' a Remigold before the end'a the week?" He joked. Clementine frowned, as she carefully wrapped the bandages around the freshly sawed off leg. Pete chuckled at her expression, raising the jar before he took another gulp. "I guess you're a little young to get the reference." He said. As she tied off the bandage, she looked up to find him watching her closely. She gently set his leg down when she was finished, and found that he was actually watching his leg. "I can still feel my piggly wigglies... n' yet their all the way over there..." He said quietly. Clementine felt her heart ache for the man, as he turned his eyes over to his removed foot. He then met her gaze, and she saw reflected in them, the same question which was burnt into her own mind. Did it work?
"I'll... hide this." Clementine said, averting her eyes from his. She moved away, trying not to look as she covered Pete's foot with a dusty blanket she found on a higher shelf, and moved it out of the mans sight. Knowing it wasn't there anymore wouldn't help him, but at least not seeing it every second might help. Clementine looked over at Nick, who she saw was now drinking heavily. She frowned, but decided to leave them both to it. She wasn't about to deny either one of them the chance to dull their pain, and after what they had been forced to endure, she couldn't deny that they had every right to drown their sorrows. She tucked herself away in the furthest corner, hidden from their sight, and curled herself into a ball. At first she thought of Lee, wondering if he had felt the same sort of desolation as he stared at his amputated hand, as Pete had when he saw his foot. She forced the thought aside, and after a time, she slept the dreamless sleep, of the truly exhausted.
She was woken by the sound of breaking glass. She felt confused at first, unsure of her surroundings, but all too soon the horrifying recent events came flooding back to her. She hurriedly got to her feet, fear driving her to defend herself. When no attack was forth-coming, she deigned to peek her head around the end of the shelves, finding that she wasn't under attack by walkers, only that Nick was being an asshole. She frowned and rolled her eyes, as she stepped out from her small corner of the shed. She stopped as she passed Pete, checking his chest was still moving and that he wasn't bleeding too much, before continuing on to Nick.
"What the hell is your problem?" She demanded, folding her arms over her chest. Nick ignored her, instead throwing another empty jar at the wall opposite him. Clementine glanced back at Pete, but he made no motion that he was disturbed by his nephews antics, sleeping through the whole affair. Clementine deduced that the two of them had drunk plenty enough between them that a small earthquake may not even wake the man. She turned back to Nick, as his smashing rampage came to a halt. He slowly lowered the last jar, staring at the floor blankly.
"I had to kill my mom." He said quietly. Clementine unfolded her arms, understanding dawning in her heart. She hesitated, before she sat down beside him, curling her arms around her legs as she looked up at him, and waited for him to continue. "Sounds weird when I say it out loud, huh?" He said, glancing over at her. She shook her head sadly, and she saw the understanding in his eyes. They had all done things that they had never thought themselves capable, and sounding weird, didn't make it any less true. "Luke always used to push me." He said suddenly, turning away. Clementine waited for him to continue patiently, knowing he needed to talk and silently vowing to be ready to listen.
"I never wanted to go into business with him." Nick said firmly, glancing at Clementine. She smiled and imagined Luke constantly pestering Nick to go into business with him. She almost laughed at the image of a younger Luke determinedly trying to get Nick on board with his plans, but managed to contain herself just barely as Nick continued to talk. "I remember when he sold me on it. His big plan... Some fuckin' plan..." Clementine rolled her eyes, finding it amusing that Luke of all people had a plan, any plan. Most times she worked with him, he just dove into anything head first and thought about it afterwards. "A case of beer in, he just said; 'Nick, we're burnin' daylight!' and that was that." He said, as he unscrewed the top off of a new jar of Whiskey. "Six months in and we were flat broke. But I didn't care... we were havin' fun." He took a long swig from the jar, head tipped back as he swallowed the liquor. Clementine looked away, not knowing if she should say anything.
"I wish I could be like him..." Nick murmured. She looked back to see Nick staring wistfully at the opposite wall, his head leaning against the wall behind him, pushing his hat to an odd angle on his head. "I wish I could just, keep movin' all the time. But I'm just not..." He glanced at Clementine, and she met his eyes curiously, sensing his desire to say something specific, yet also seeing in his eyes the moment he chose to say something else instead. "built like that." He said finally, averting his eyes. Clementine frowned, not understanding the sudden change in how he'd been about to speak. Before she could say anything, he had already continued. "Everyone I grew up with..." He said, his head flopping forward to hang over the jar of Whiskey. "It all... happened to them." He murmured, taking another deep drink from his jar. "And now, its gonna happen to us." He said, with an air of finality and certainty. Clementine frowned at him, annoyed by his apparent wallowing. "We're all so fucked... the whole world is fucked..."
"You're just drunk." Clementine sighed, rolling her eyes.
"No shit." Nick laughed, taking another swig from his jar. He drank long and deep, until Clementine finally just batted the jar away, causing it to break on the far wall. "Hey!"
"We'll make it." Clementine said forcefully, almost believing it herself.
"Bullshit." Nick said after a long moments pause. He averted his gaze and made to get himself another jar of Whiskey, but Clementine grabbed his hands and held them as tight as she could, leaning close to him so he couldn't avoid her glare.
"We will make it, you know why, asshole?" She asked, all but spitting the words into his face from her irritation. "Because your uncle is laying over there, sans fucking foot, and you are not gonna fall apart now, feeling sorry for yourself when you could still save his fucking life." Clementine said, her voice rising as she tried to force him to understand her and finally get some sense into his head.
"You're scary when you swear Clem, anyone ever told you that?" Nick said. Clementine glared at him even harder, and he sighed in defeat. "You said it doesn't work." He said quietly, trying to avoid her glare but having nowhere else to look. He finally met her eyes reluctantly. "That first night... you said it never worked..." Clementine released a breath she hadn't realized she was holding, sympathetic to the pain he was feeling. She shook her head slowly.
"I only met one man, who took his arm trying to give himself enough time to rescue a stupid little girl, from a situation she had gotten herself into." Clementine said slowly, averting her own eyes in shame, as she released Nick's hands. "That man saved the little girl, but it was too late for himself. That man took his arm, just to buy himself enough time to save her. Nothing more. Lee..." Using Lee's name hurt too much and the words caught in her throat for a moment, a hard lump she had to swallow away before she could continue. "That man might have survived, had he taken his hand off sooner. If he hadn't gone chasing after that stupid, stupid..." She felt a hot tear on her cheek, and she brushed it away angrily, glancing at Nick briefly before settling her gaze on Pete, unable to endure the sympathy in Nick's eyes.
"He sounds like a great guy..." Nick said quietly, hesitantly taking her hand and squeezing it gently. "I'm glad he saved that little girl, but I have a feeling she weren't so stupid. Seems to me like she was pretty smart. Must be, if she's able to go 'round tellin' adults off in such a way they have to get a grip and pull themselves together..." He added, which made her almost giggle, not that she let him know it. "But seriously Clem, what's the point?" Clementine groaned, as Nick began to sink back into his depression. "We'll just march to some new place, and somebody else will die..." Clementine turned to glare at him, but found his eyes instead on Pete. She glanced over herself, to see the man was shuddering slightly.
"So make sure it isn't Pete." She said, turning back to Nick. She waited until Nick reluctantly met her eyes before continuing. "You stood up and took that saw, when I couldn't. I couldn't... I could never. But you did. You did the hardest thing anyone could do in this world now, you made a choice to save him." She said, pointing at Pete. "You did that. He would have died already without your help. So stop whining, and help me find a way to get him to Carlos." Nick stared at her for a long moment, seeming to think things over in his no doubt now significantly clouded mind. After a long and calculating look, he offered her a fresh jar of Whiskey. Clementine gave him a withering look, but he just raised a brow and she was surprised to see one corner of his mouth twitch upwards. She thought for a moment, before deciding that if it got him out of his wallowing, she would probably have done it a lot sooner. She hesitantly took the jar, holding it to her nose and sniffing it. She recoiled from the smell, which made Nick chuckle lightly. With a final glare at him, she took a timid sip, and upon swallowing, she immediately began to cough heavily. Nick laughed loudly as he took the jar from her and allowed her a moment to regain her composure.
"Well, if you're strong enough to drink Whiskey, I reckon you're just about strong enough to do anything you put your mind to." He said lightly, one hand gently cuffing her cap. She turned her face to the floor to hide a goofy grin, making sure she wiped all trace of it clear before she looked back up at him. "Look, its been a day. We need Carlos, but uncle Pete's in no condition to travel, so you're gonna have to go and get the gang. You'll have to bring them here, and we can all go back to the cabin together." Nick said. Clementine almost rejected his plan immediately, but then reasoned that it did make the most sense.
"What about you?" She asked uncertainly, glancing at Pete.
"Someone has to be here... in case..." Nick trailed off, watching his uncle with a sadness that made Clementine's heart ache.
"I could stay - you could probably run faster than me..!" She said, offering him a way to avoid the potential need to execute his own uncle. Before she had even finished, Nick was shaking his head defiantly.
"It should be me." He said determinedly. Clementine rolled her eyes, of all the times for him to decide he was going to stand his ground.
"Nick, we could go together..." Again Nick shook his head.
"Nah, uncle Pete couldn't fight them off, not in his... condition." Nick said, stammering over how to phrase Pete's recent mutilation. "Clem, its okay." He said, turning to face her, cutting off any further arguments from her. She saw the determination in his eyes and sighed. She got to her feet, and felt guilty that she took no small amount of pleasure in the way he struggled to follow her example and get to his own feet. When he finally managed it, he chose not to say anything, instead gesturing towards the doors. "I'm gonna seal the doors up again, soon as you're out..." He slurred, as he pulled the crate far enough from the door that Clementine could slip through the gap.
"Don't get dead." Clementine said, hesitating before she left. She glanced over at Pete and her heat broke at the pitiful stump at the end of the mans leg. "Either of you." She added, turning back to meet Nick's eyes. Nick smiled at her, a drunken kind of crooked grin.
"Back at'cha," he said, before turning serious again. "Seriously Clem, you run like your ass is on fire, don't look back and don't stop - just run." He warned. She nodded her head, and then silently wrapped her arms around his waist, pressing her forehead to his chest briefly. Nick might be an asshole on occasion, but he was also a much deeper person than she had first conceived, and the thought of losing his friendship was a hard one to bear. He gently patted her head a moment, before she pulled away, turning to the door. He pulled it open for her, and without a backward glance, she dashed out the gap and did exactly as she had been told; she ran like her ass was on fire.
Several times during her talking, Carlos and Rebecca respectively looked as though they wanted to ask a question, but they seemed to sense that once begun, she couldn't stop speaking, and they waited until she was finished with the whole tale before beginning to ask her for deeper details on certain parts.
"You cut off his fucking leg?!" Rebecca cried disgustedly. "You mutilated him, an old man?" She spat. Clementine calmly met her gaze, and slowly wiped her face of the imaginary spittle she pretended Rebecca had covered her in. She was internally delighted by the spark of fury in the older woman's eyes.
"And that's different from when you planned to do it to me, how?" She asked quietly. Rebecca's fury diminished distinctly, though she still glared angrily at her.
"Clementine, I need you to be very specific." Carlos said, resting his hands on her shoulders to get her attention. Clementine looked at his hands, and then turned her eyes up to Carlos, raising a brow at his presumption about touching her. He dutifully removed his hands, holding them out in a gesture of peace to placate her. "I need to know; was Pete bleeding out? Was he still breathing when you left, was he alive?" He asked. Clementine almost didn't answer. It was childish, being so hurt by the concern these people showed to Pete when they had not shown it to her, but she was, despite her maturity, still just a child, so perhaps it was only natural that she resent them at least a little for their attitudes.
"He was alive." She said calmly, meeting his eyes determinedly. Carlos and Rebecca exchanged long looks, clearly having an entire silent conversation about the reliability of her judgement. She huffed an annoyed sigh, crossing her arms over her chest as she glared up at them both. She was more trustworthy in her judgement of Pete's condition than Carlos would ever be.
"We gotta go." Rebecca said, narrowing her eyes at Carlos, who sighed and rubbed at his stubble covered chin thoughtfully.
"Just hold on a minute." He said, trying to calm the angry woman.
"We gotta go, now." She said forcefully, jabbing a finger into his chest. "My husband is still out there. Get. The. Guns." Clementine took a discreet step away, concerned that the angry woman may suddenly implode at any moment. Carlos averted his eyes, before sighing and complying with Rebecca's demands. As soon as he was out the kitchen, Rebecca threw a glare over her shoulder, as if the entire situation were Clementine's fault. "Luke and Alvin went out looking for you. Luke was worried 'cuz you never came back yesterday. Alvin's too soft to know a good thing when it falls in his lap, so he was concerned about you too. I told them not to go..." Her voice broke as she trailed off, turning away from Clementine to hide her fears about her husband. Clementine bit back a retort, understanding that the woman was afraid and lashing out. "Dammit, Luke." She heard Rebecca mutter, and she closed her eyes as she forced herself to count to ten so she wouldn't snap at the woman. Luke didn't make Alvin do anything he didn't want to. Alvin was a nice person, unlike his wife, so it was his own decision to go. Even without being there, Clementine knew it in her heart.
"Clementine, can you..." Carlos began, hesitating as he gave Rebecca a rifle and watched her march out the kitchen door. He turned back to her with a torn expression, but he seemed to both weigh his options and make up his mind pretty quick. "Can you please watch Sarah?" He asked. Clementine blinked, staring at him in dumb shock. She shook her head and frowned.
"Didn't you tell me to stay away from her?" She asked, looking up to see that Carlos was still torn by his limited options.
"Just distract her please, don't tell her anything, just... keep her upstairs until we get back." Carlos said quickly, checking out the door to see how far ahead Rebecca had gotten. Clementine rolled her eyes, already planning to tell Sarah everything she could. The girl had been too sheltered, if she wanted to live, she needed to know.
"Okie dokie." Clementine said, saluting as she had seen Duck do when he used to say it to his parents. She felt the pain grip her heart at the thought of him, but she fought it off, keeping herself together for the present situation. She could always fall apart later.
"You'll be safe inside." Carlos said, overflowing with relief and gratitude. Clementine felt slightly awkward, knowing she was planning to go against everything this man wanted for his daughter, but it had to be done. "Just don't open the doors for anything! We'll be back soon... and, thankyou." Clementine rolled her eyes at being thanked for basically babysitting a girl years older than herself. She sighed as Carlos hurried out the door and shut it securely behind himself. She debated just waiting out the time on her own downstairs, but decided to head up and get her life lesson with Sarah done with as soon as possible. She headed up the stairs, and decided against knocking before entering the other girls room.
"Say cheese!" Sarah cried, as Clementine opened the door. Clementine froze, her hand automatically dropping to her waist for her gun. Luckily it was in her backpack, otherwise she would have had some serious explaining to do when Carlos got back. "I found this under the house, there was all kinds of old stuff!"
"Under the house?" Clementine asked confusedly.
"Yeah, when you said that was how you got in before, I really wanted to go look, so I've been searching it slowly." Sarah said excitedly, waving a Polaroid back and forth. Clementine chose not to comment on the stupidity of going somewhere so small and enclosed with nobody else knowing where you were or there to back you up, realizing that preparing this girl for the real world was perhaps a much larger job than she had first realized. She walked closer and dropped her backpack on the floor in the corner. "It's so cool..." Sarah gushed, as she handed over the photo of Clementine, who frowned at the startled expression on the small face staring back up at her. "Take one of me?" Sarah asked, practically bouncing in excitement.
"You shouldn't scare people like that..." Clementine said, pushing past Sarah to sit on the other girls bed. She turned to look out the window, staring at nothing particular in the sky and seeing Pete's mutilated foot in every cloud that past.
"Sorry... I just wanted to cheer you up..." Sarah said, clearly feeling hurt by Clementine's lack of interest.
"You surprise people like that and you're likely to get a bullet between your eyes in thanks..." Clementine said flatly, not bothering to turn back to the other girl. She heard a long and silent pause, where she assumed that Sarah was considering replying, before she heard the camera click again, and realized that she had just been taking another photo.
"Isn't this the best?" Sarah asked, waving a photo over Clementine's shoulder. Clementine turned quickly, throwing an annoyed glare at the other girl, wondering if she had listened to anything she had just said to her. Sarah took a step back, seeming uncertain for the first time. "What's wrong..?" She asked, looking behind herself as she wrapped her arms around her chest as if suddenly afraid. "Where's my dad?" Clementine sighed, watching the girl closely and trying to decide how best to phrase it.
"You should know what's going on..." She began, hesitating before saying too much to judge how Sarah would take the news. The other girl stared at her for a long moment, before she sighed and dropped her arms.
"My dad told you not to tell me didn't he?" She asked, although Clementine didn't know why because she had already known the answer.
"He didn't want me to worry you..." Clementine hedged, avoiding answering as best she could. "Okay, there's some things you need to know and basically, your dad doesn't want me to tell you. Did you never wonder why we never do the same chores or even share a room, though it would make the most sense?" Clementine asked, exasperated already.
"I..." Sarah ducked her head, clearly aware of the situation but unwilling to voice it.
"Your dad doesn't want me near you because I'll tell you what you need to know if you wanna actually survive in this world, rather than this lie of a normal life..." Clementine said slowly, gauging the other girls reactions as well as she could manage. "I'm sorry, but you need to consider whats gonna happen in your life, should anything happen to your dad." Sarah jerked her eyes up to meet Clementine's, wide and frightened and uncertain, but with a knowledge that Clementine was telling her the truth. "It wont be easy, but you need to learn to defend yourself. You don't get to be a kid anymore. You're not a boy. You're not a girl. You're just alive." Clementine said forcefully.
"I..." Sarah looked as if she was about to argue, but at the last moment changed her mind. Her shoulders slumped and she sighed in defeat. "Okay... I'm just alive."
"It's not as bad as you think..." Clementine said lightly, trying to make the other girl realize it wasn't the end of the world to just grow up a little. Besides, who was she going to impress by being such a blatant girl about everything? The high school hearth throb?
"..." Sarah looked away, clearly not so easily convinced. "What else?"
"You need to think about survival." Clementine said, trying to remember how Lee had explained it to her so long ago. "Your hair for instance. It could be grabbed by a walker and then you're done for. You need to keep it shorter..." Clementine said. Sarah glanced over, clearly eyeing her own short hairstyle. Clementine let her, keeping her body language open so the other girl would be more willing to trust her.
"Like yours..?" Sarah asked weakly. Clementine worked hard to keep herself from rolling her eyes. Why did the girl persist with asking questions she already knew the answer to?
"Yes, like mine." Clementine said, reaching up to gently toy with one of her pigtails. She noted that they were slightly longer then normal and she made a mental note to trim them again as soon as she got a chance. "But, you could cut it shorter if you didn't want the pigtails..." She added, glancing back to the other girl, but she found that Sarah was already shaking her head and as she smiled shyly.
"No, I like the pigtails. They're cute." She said. Clementine forced down the wave of pain that suddenly threatened to overwhelm her. Lee's comment on her cute new hairstyle still cut as fresh as any other of her memories. She was sure that if she wasn't so consumed with guilt, deserved though it was, she wouldn't feel so much raw pain whenever she thought of him.
"Cool." Clementine said, straining to force the words out through the clamp she felt around her throat. "We can match" She joked, and saw that Sarah smiled slightly wider, obviously liking the idea. She tucked the information away for later use.
"So... what's going on?" Sarah asked suddenly. "Where'd my dad go? Where've you been?" Clementine took a deep breath, and prepared herself for the worst.
"Pete got bit." She said slowly, letting the words sink in as she said them. Sarah froze, her expression changing from pleased to curious to horrified in swift succession. Sarah turned her back, clearly struggling with the information. "He's okay... Nick and I-" Clementine's throat caught on the words, the enormity of their actions hitting her all over again. She closed her eyes and forced the words out. "We took his foot off... It removed the bite, and when I left a few hours later, it seemed like it had worked..." She said quietly. Sarah didn't move for a long time, save for the regular jerk of her shoulders. Clementine was pleased she couldn't see the horror on the other girls face, sure it would have made her feel a thousand times worse than she already did.
"I'm sorry, I-" Sarah said, half turning back to her. "I just need to..." She suddenly dropped to the floor, wrapping her arms around her knees as she rocked back and forth and stared into the distance. Clementine allowed her a minute, before she frowned and crouched down beside her, hunkering down and resting her arms on her legs as she raised a brow at the other girl. Sarah met her eyes, and blushed in embarrassment, clearly understanding Clementine's silent message that this wasn't the way to solve her problems. "Wanna see what else I found..?" She asked, a shy smile curling her lips. Clementine smiled widely, pleased that the other girl had got over her drama so quickly. She nodded and got to her feet, turning to look out the window while she waited for Sarah to find whatever it was she wanted to show her.
Sarah rummaged under the bed for a short time, obviously having to dig whatever it was out as she had hidden it well from her father. Clementine frowned, wondering how he would react when he found out the things she had told Sarah so far, and planned to yet. There was no telling how long they had before Carlos and the others returned, so she could have given her an entire life lesson by the time they actually came back to the cabin. Eventually Sarah found what she was looking for. She stood, and Clementine felt uneasy at the sight of a gun in the other girls hand.
"Will you teach me how to use it..?" Sarah asked hopefully. "I couldn't find any bullets..." She added quickly, seeming shy about the fact. Clementine hesitated, on the one hand it would only be a good thing for Sarah to know how to defend herself, but then again, Sarah was a total air head and was probably more dangerous than most with a weapon.
"Okay..." Clementine finally relented, deciding survival was more important than her uncertainty about Sarah's commitment. "But its not a toy." She said more firmly, meeting Sarah's eyes to make sure she understood the importance of that fact.
"I know." Sarah said dutifully. She turned, and slowly held the gun up before her.
"First, remember, its just a thing." Clementine said, showing Sarah the best way to grip and hold the weapon.
"What does that mean..?" Sarah asked, as she squinted down the length of the gun.
"Uh, I... don't know." Clementine admitted, raising her eyebrows at the fact she never questioned it when Lee had said the same thing to her.
"I thought it'd be heavier." Sarah said, as if disappointed that she could easily lift it in one hand. "Okay, what do I do?" She asked, glancing at Clementine excitedly.
"The most important thing is, when you go to shoot," Clementine said, re-positioning Sarah's arms and showing her the best stance to fire from. "Take a breath before you pull the trigger." Sarah sucked in an enormous gulp of air, holding it as she took aim. Clementine narrowed her eyes and hoped that she had never embarrassed herself in front of Lee by doing that. "Not that big." She said flatly. Sarah's breath came whooshing out in a large gust, and Clementine closed her eyes at the strong smell of garlic. Clearly Rebecca had cooked the previous night, and she was suddenly glad to have missed it. Sarah slowly turned to the far wall, as if following a target.
"What should I shoot?" She asked, suddenly swinging the gun around to point at Clementine's face.
"Don't do that!" Clementine cried, ducking almost to the floor in her haste to get out of the line of fire.
"S-sorry..." Sarah stuttered, as Clementine rose to her feet, glaring at her furiously. She hung her head a moment, before turning to the window. "Maybe, I could practice outside..." She said, as she gazed through the window. "There's that tree..." She muttered thoughtfully, before apparently disregarding it by something else that caught her attention. "Hey, Luke's back!" She said excitedly, hurrying out the room to go and greet him. Clementine rushed to the window, but all she saw was a shadow approaching the cabin. The hairs on the back of her neck stood up, an ominous feeling growing in her heart as she turned to the doorway that led to the hallway. Something about the situation didn't feel right, and she could feel it in her heart, that it wasn't Luke who Sarah had seen outside the cabin. She only hoped she got to Sarah before she did something stupid.
A/N:~ Aloha! I am not dead, nor is this fic abandoned! A-ha ha haaaa...
So... I know, its late. Like, REALLY late. But, I made it a bit longer to make it up to you - and... I will get to work on the next chapter tomorrow night, so that you can have it (hopefully) on time on Friday :)
I'm so sorry about the delay though, I'm afraid I had some crap hit the fan and I just completely lost interest in writing, or well, anything really. I wa disheartened and broken. Like... well, I don't really know tbh, but something pretty bad!
So anyway, now you know my story. Or part of it XD
I know the ending is kinda sudden, but I really wanted to get this to you tonight, and I thought that if I went into the whole next part then I have to go through ALLLLL the Carver dialogue and it'd just take too long to get it posted today - so if I start that tomorrow, it should HOPEFULLY be ready at the weekend for you... hopefully...
Anyway; please don't hesitate, review and let me know you're still reading and enjoying, or that you're mad at me, by all means XD
I also wanted to say thankyou to everyone who reviewed previously, especially the guest's who reviewed at the weekend because it was the boost I needed to get back into writing this...
So, my thanks to you all! I really appreciate all your support and your taking the time to read this - I hope you're all still keen to continue the journey! Please review and let me know what you think and I will try to get the next chapter done ASAP for you!
x My love to you all x
