A/N: Ok, am I the only one who is extremely surprised at how little time had passed between Carver's and Sarah's deaths? I mean, I knew time passed slower than we think, but damn, less than a day? How slowly is this Earth turning? Somebody give it a kick.
15 hours after Carver's Death
They had left at first light, just as planned.
By high noon, they had covered almost 20 miles without passing a single crossing across the river
The trip had been rather uneventful, especially compared to yesterday. Kenny and Luke at the front of the group, Luke armed with a rifle. Rebecca in the middle of the group, armed with a baby. Clementine noticed that Bonnie was doing her best to stay between her and Luke, like she'd savage him at a moment's notice. Chill out, Bonnie. I'm not stupid enough to kill him in front of all of you. And Mike was watching the back.
All-in-all, a boring march.
Rebecca tripped, almost falling down. Bonnie bent over to help her up. "You alright?"
"She's exhausted," said Luke, looking to Kenny, "We all are."
"I...can keep going," said Rebecca, standing up
A few more steps later
"We shoulda stayed put," said Luke, "We shoulda stayed put till she got better."
"She wasn't going to get no better back there," said Kenny, "We need to get her someplace warm."
"This look like someplace warm to you?"
"Would it be any warmer if we'd waited?" said Clementine
"Well, we coulda gone South," said Luke, "We still can! We can just turn right around."
"That ain't an option," said Kenny, "Hurry up, we gotta make it to that town before nightfall."
"You don't even listen to anyone! You just stand around barking orders!"
"I'm doing what I've always done, keeping people alive."
"Luke, just shut up." said Clementine
Rebecca tripped, again, this time falling to the ground
"Alright, Rebecca needs to sit down," said Mike, "We can keep going in a minuet."
"Alright," said Kenny, "Rebecca, let me take the baby."
"It's alright..." said Rebecca weakly
"You need to rest-"
"Back off!" said Luke, "She said she didn't want you to, don't be weird about it!"
"Luke, silence is a valid option," said Clementine, "If you don't have anything important to say, don't say anything at all. Kenny's been a dad before, have you been a dad before?"
"That's not what I'm concerned about." said Luke
"Hello!"
A voice in the distance rang towards them, they saw a blond haired girl walking towards them
"...who's this?" said Mike
The woman started speaking Russian
Russian!
"Oh God...please be a coincidence." said Clementine
"What's wrong?" said Kenny
"Me and Jane met a Russian guy on the observatory deck, before everyone else showed up."
"Think they're related?" said Mike
"Not many Russians in the area." said Kenny
"I didn't trust him, and I don't trust anyone with him." said Clementine
"We'll be on our guard." said Luke
The blond-haired Russian came closer to them. "Hello, my name is Natasha."
"What's going on here, friend," said Kenny, holding his pistol beneath his back, "Got people with you?"
Natasha looked at them all. Her eyes rested on Clementine, and narrowed. "Little brown girl with ugly sweater...is your name...Clementine?"
"I asked you first." said Kenny, "You're not out here alone, are you?"
Natasha gestured to the trees, and some burly men with automatic rifles came out
"You were armed, so we were going to let you pass," she said, "Except you we know, Clementine."
"How do you know?" said Clementine
"Arvo lived...at least, he lived long enough...to tell of little brown girl...named Clementine!" she said angrily
"Clementine..." said Bonnie, worriedly, "What did you do?"
Clementine looked down, then stared Natasha strait in the eye, "Arvo had medicine, medicine that Rebecca needed, so we took it. Then, Arvo threatened revenge, so I threw him off the balcony."
"...You've killed us." said Bonnie
Natasha looked like she was about to cry, but held back, "No...I hate you, Clementine...but we don't kill people unless we have to...not even demons like you!" she shouted, "Just drop your guns, so we can take your things. Then...you can leave."
"No. You aren't taking anything." said Clementine
"I wasn't asking."
"Neither was I."
Natasha took a step toward her, and Kenny pointed his pistol at her. "Take one more step."
Suddenly, everyone had a gun pointed at someone.
"This could be easy..." said Natasha
"Don't worry, it still is." said Clementine
Then, one of her burly friends said something
"Drop your weapons, and this will all end ok." said Natasha
I need them to hesitate, make them think twice about shooting. Little girl won't work on her...come one, think Clementine...what will knock them off balance...
"We have a baby!" she shouted
As if on cue, the child coughed, drawing all their attention
"You have a baby?" Natasha looked at the little one, then shouted something Russian to her burly friends, who took a few steps forward to check
From there, it was chaos. Her group was shouting at the Russians, Russians were shouting at the group and at each other
Alright...they're hesitating now, but for how long? I need to take advantage of this...what was that sound?
She listened more closely, and was sure. The dead were among them. But where?
She followed the sound with her eyes to...Rebecca, lying hunched over the child
She's turned.
Rebecca started sitting up, the life gone from her eyes and replaced with that desperation she saw in Sarah's
Without hesitation, she aimed
The first shot fired, several dozen came after it