Useless
That's what Clementine felt like right then and there.
Being that she could hardly walk AND her arm being in a sling, the group thought it would be best if Clementine stayed at the diner while the rest of the group scouted and scavenged for supplies.
Sure, she had Rebecca and Sarah to keep her company but sometimes it felt like they saw Clementine as a little girl rather than the survivor that she was. Sure she was little, but that didn't mean nothing.
Just like Lee had told her.
Clementine gazed out of a window by the booth she was sitting in as she saw walkers aimlessly wandering around. She pondered for a moment if there was any chance that a walker could recognize someone from when they were alive. Could they show those people mercy? Could they hesitate when attacking them?
No.
Clementine remembered seeing her undead parents last time she was in Savannah. They looked straight at her but at the same time they seemed to look through her, looking at her but not really seeing her.
If that made any sense.
There was no humanity left in them. There was nothing left to save. They may have been your loved ones at one point but now they were empty husks without thoughts, emotions, or a mind.
So why did it still feel wrong to her to kill them?
Maybe it was what Lee had been trying to tell her when she had her last moment with him in that jewelry store.
Shooting people...it changes you Clem. I don't want you to have to get used to it.
While that rule didn't really apply to the walkers Clementine had already killed, would it apply to people we once knew?
Lee didn't want Clem to shoot him because he thought it would change her.
But really, leaving Lee to turn probably affected Clementine more than shooting him would have.
At least she could have taken comfort in knowing that Lee was in a better place. But leaving him, what did that mean for Lee?
Was he really in a better place right now?
Was he stuck in his own body watching helplessly as his walker form tried to free itself to feast for all these years?
Clementine shivered at the thought.
At that moment, a hand landed on her shoulder, snapping her out of her thoughts.
Luke was there giving her a concerned look.
"You alright kid?" Luke asked.
Clementine gave him the best poker face she could.
"Yeah, I'm fine."
If the emotionless face that Clementine gave him didn't set off the warning bells in Luke's head, then the fact that she didn't call him out on calling her a kid had.
Luke knew that Clementine was never really alright. Watching so many loved ones die will do that to you. It was easy for her to lose herself in the past memories she has. Luke knew that from personal experience that sometimes, you just needed some alone time to think and remember the one's they lost along the way. There isn't a day that goes by when Luke doesn't think about Pete, Nick's mother, or his own family.
So he decided that if she really wanted to talk, she would.
"Listen," Luke started, "Carlos wanted to talk to you before we left, says its something important."
Luke was concerned when Carlos told him that.
Was Clementine alright?
Did Carlos figure out that his theory was wrong on her bite and that Carlos wanted to tell Clem before the whole group?
Clementine, however, didn't look worried. She just gave him a smile and nodded before letting Luke help her to her feet and walking into the back room where Carlos was getting ready.
When she opened the door, she was greeted by Carlos who was talking in a hushed tone with Sarah, who looked ashamed by something.
Clementine raised an eyebrow and cleared her throat, getting the attention of both Carlos and Sarah.
"You wanted to see me?" Clementine asked after a moment of silence.
Carlos gave her a smile which she could immediately tell was forced and his eyes seemed to hold an unknown emotion that Clem couldn't decipher.
"Yes," Carlos said, "I did."
He turned to his daughter and whispered something to her. Sarah was out the door in a few seconds which sent off a signal in Clementine's head that this wasn't going to be a pleasant conversation.
Carlos motioned her to sit down at the table he stood by. While Clementine sat down, Carlos moved a few feet over to a nearby window looking outside.
When a moment of silence passed, Clementine opened her mouth to speak when Carlos beat her to it.
"I wish you hadn't done what you did."
Clementine had a case of déjà vu when he got those words out. The same exact words he told her back at the cabin when she "manipulated" Sarah.
She had a feeling that Sarah was going to be the main topic of this discussion as well.
"I TOLD you that she wasn't like you," Carlos said with a strained voice, still not looking at her, "but you go against what I told you and gave her a weapon that she could have hurt herself with."
Clementine wasn't just going to let him scold her this time. He had to know what she had to say.
"She needs to learn how to defen-" Clem started.
Carlos turned around and gave her the scariest glare she had ever seen (maybe not as bad as Kenny's though).
"She's MY daughter," Carlos told her with a raised tone, "and I decide what is best for her and she DOESN'T need to learn to kill!"
Clementine should have been intimidated by Carlos. But she could only look at him for a moment. They seemed to have a stare down with Carlos practically daring her to argue with him again.
Carlos turned away but not long after, Clementine spoke.
"You know," Clementine spoke, "you remind me of Lee sometimes."
That caught Carlos off guard.
He turned to her with a face that expressed confusion and astonishment.
"What?"
Clementine just stared at him for a moment thinking about what she had said.
"When I was eight," Clementine told him, "back when Lee was still alive, he treated me a lot like you do with Sarah."
Carlos turned away from her and walked back to the window, a thoughtful expression making its way onto his face.
Clementine continued, "He would always make sure I was either behind him or in a building away from everything when someone or something attacked us."
Carlos didn't say anything and let her keep talking.
"But one day, we met this man, his name was Chuck." Clementine smiled when she remembered how nice he was.
"When he found our group, we accepted him into it. Lee got mad at him when Chuck told me I was going to die."
Carlos whipped around and stared at her incredulously but still didn't say anything so Clementine kept going.
"I was afraid he was going to hurt him so I followed Lee when he went to talk to him," Clementine said, "and I'll never forget what I heard him tell Lee."
Carlos now looked curious but still defensive.
"What was it?" he asked with hesitation.
Clementine smiled remembering the homeless man's wise words.
"I don't know much about you folks, but you keep goin' on like this, and that little girl ain't going to make it," Clementine said with a far-away look, "You got to consider her a living person, that's it. You ain't little, you ain't a girl, you ain't a boy, you ain't strong...or smart, you're alive."
Carlos looked deep in thought.
"And if you keep going on like this, then that little girl ain't going to make it." Clementine finished.
Carlos turned away from her, suddenly finding the wall interesting.
"Lee taught me how to survive after that," Clementine told him, "he taught me how to shoot, always make a plan, and to keep my hair short so the walkers can't grab it."
"If he hadn't taught me how to survive," Clementine paused for a moment, "then I would have died a long time ago."
All was silent for a moment as Carlos considered the words he was told. Clementine started getting nervous thinking he was going to yell at her again, which was why she was surprised when she saw tears start falling from his eyes.
"I watched my wife get devoured by walkers," he told her, "after that day, I SWORE I would do anything it took to protect my daughter from the same fate."
Clementine gave him a look that expressed exasperation.
"Then you NEED to teach her how to survive," Clementine told him gently but firmly, "there will be moments when Sarah is cornered and you're to far to help."
Carlos said nothing but turned and left out the door to the front of the diner.
Clementine sighed in defeat but decided that that was the most she would get from Carlos.
She just hopes that he will take her advice before it's too late.
She walked out of the back room into the diner and was confused to see both Rebecca and Sarah putting supplies into their packs.
Carlos walked up to Clementine, seeing her confusion.
"Sarah and Rebecca are coming with us," he told her, "Rebecca wanted to go with Alvin because she wanted to try and find something in a drug store to help with her pregnancy and I can't tell them what to get because I'm going a separate way and don't know what they have that's still there."
Clementine raised a brow, her eyes darting between Sarah and Carlos.
Carlos sighed, "And I thought about what you said, and I should teach Sarah a little about shooting."
Clementine was surprised but smiled at him.
"You're doing the right thing." Clementine told him.
"I hope you're right," Carlos said, but he quickly shifted to his parent side, "you're going to be alone so take this pistol and sit in the back room and don't come out unless we are back."
Clementine opened her mouth to protest after she took the pistol and slipped it in her back pocket but Carlos cut her off.
"I know you are capable of defending yourself, but you're injured and I'd rather be safe than sorry, okay?" Carlos told her.
Clementine, although she didn't like it, agreed. She wasn't really confident that she could defend herself on wobbly legs and with only one arm.
Carlos opened his mouth to tell the others to get going when he was cut off by a loud ding.
Everyone was confused of what was happening when Clementine realized what the sound was.
Someone rang the Church bell, just like the last time she was in Savannah.
"The hell is that?" Luke asked.
"Someone's ringing the church bell." Clementine answered.
"It could be automated." Alvin said, although it sounded like a question.
Clementine shook her head.
"No, trust me, they can only be operated manually, someone else is here."
Sarah seemed to panic a bit while Carlos held her close and soothed her.
Rebecca narrowed her eyes while looking at the ground.
"I don't like this." she said.
"Me neither," Nick agreed, "but look!"
Everyone looked outside and, just like Clementine thought, every single walker started limping and dragging themselves toward the church where the bell sounded.
Luke smiled.
"Looks like whoever rang that bell saved us a lot of trouble." he said.
Clementine wasn't so sure.
Yeah, the walkers were gone but who exactly is responsible for it?
"Clementine," Carlos told her, "get in the back room and don't come out unless we get back."
She knew it was no use fighting and walked into the back room and sat by the window as the rest of the group left to take advantage of the walkers temporary absence.
After a view minutes of aimlessly thinking Clementine's eyes widened and a gasp escaped her lips when she looked out the window.
Straight ahead and down an alley, Clementine could make out a building that she had seen before.
The jewelry store.
"Lee!" Clementine thought to herself.
She hopped up from her seat and reached for the back door but hesitated.
"Don't come out unless we get back!" Carlos had said.
She should stay and wait for the others before heading anywhere. She was injured and barely able to stand on her feet.
But then again, there aren't any walkers on the street right now and by the time Carlos and the rest of the group get back, the walkers could have come back by then. Her shooting arm was fine too if she had to fire at anything.
"I'll be in and out before they even get back," Clementine thought, "besides, this is something I need to do alone."
She yanked open the door and made her way over to the store with little to no effort and opened the same door she had left from all those years ago.
She turned to be greeted by a sight that brought tears to her a eyes and, even though he was a walker, she smiled at him.
"Lee."
She was going to do it.
It was time to set him free.
But what Clementine didn't know was that she left the door slightly ajar. Fog had rolled in, disguising the figure holding a crowbar with a menacing look in his eye, a smirk on his lips as he watched Clementine disappear in the store.
AN: Hell of a cliffhanger there right? Sorry about that but we are coming up on the end. The time for family fluff is over and this story is about to take a angsty turn. Get ready for that. I decided to give a longer chapter this time as well to build up to the ending. I think I'm going to have two more chapters and an epilogue. I've got the rest of the story planned out. Next chapter is going to be the Lee/Clementine confrontation! It may take me a while for the next one because I want to get it done as perfect as I can. As always, LEAVE A REVIEW and let me know what you think. What is Clementine going to say to Lee? Will she be able to kill him? Who is the figure watching Clementine? Thank you all so much and I will see you all in the future!
