Chapter 9: Episode 2: Failure

The woods always seemed like a peaceful place. Even with the dead walking around, one could still take time to enjoy the scenery; the cawing of birds, the sounds of little critters, and the trees lit beautifully by the late morning sunshine. All unaffected by the virus that ravaged mankind to it's core.

Then again, why would they be effected by it?

Animals born in the wild were natural survivalist, from the birds to the deer. Nothings really changed for them. Deer were hunted by humans for years, now they were hunted by walkers too, if anything, their chances of survival against such a slow and clumsy predator was ...almost too easy to get away from. On the human side, however, walkers were a much more dangerous threat. From what I know, the virus didn't spread through animals, it only spread through people, and that put another winning tally on the board for animals.

Taking a deep breath, I relaxed as the woodland breeze cooled my face. A moment later, I felt a tap on my shoulder. I turned to my hunting partner, Mark, about to speak, until he put his index finger to his lips and pointed in front of us.

Up a few miters ahead behind a few bushes was a walker. It's back turned to us, as it ate away at whatever it had managed to catch. I sent my partner a nod and crouched down, sneaking up behind the undead creature. Mark was close behind, a hunting rifle that we had looted from a gun store, held tightly in his hands. As I got closer, I slowly unsheathed my katana, being sure not to step on any tree branches or dead leaves that happened to be underfoot. Once we were close enough, with the walker's back being to us on the other side of the bush, I picked up a small rock and tossed it into a bush right across from it.

The walker's head shoot up at the noise, the meal it had caught completely forgot as it shambled to it's feet with a loud snarl, giving me a good view of it long hair and red T-shirt. I leaped forward, sword hilt gripped tightly as I drove to blade through the back of the walker's skull, before kicking it off.

As I wiped the dark red blood and rotten brain matter from my sword with a ripped piece of cloth, Mark walked up beside me, a frown forming on his face. "Damn it," he said. "What'd they get this time?"

"Looks like a rabbit, maybe," I said. I stuffed the cloth into my back pocket and sheathed my katana. "It's too eaten up to tell anymore."

"Well, that's another meal lost," he muttered.

"Don't worry, Mark, we'll find something." I said with a bit of hope. "We are in the woods after all, there's got to be something around we can take back, might even get us a deer."

"Let's hope so." We began walking towards another part of the woods, silent and alert for anything that might give us problems, or catch for a meal. A sigh came from Mark as he spoke again. "I still can't believe we went through all that commissary food in three months. It seemed so much at the time."

I nodded. "Yeah. Now all we're left with is a few snacks. We should have started hunting for food sooner. We got too comfortable not having to, now look what happened." I said, turning my head to him. "Still happy you came with us?"

"Trust me, I have no regrets," Marks replied. "If I had stayed there, I'd probably be food by now."

"Maybe, who knows. You might be doing better than you are now."

"That a big maybe."

With all that had happened over the past three months since the drug store, I'd come to like mostly everyone in our little group. I say mostly, because even though I had no beef with Larry whatsoever, which I should seeing as he knocked me out and left me for dead, he had no problem showing how much he disliked me. Lilly and Kenny had become, somewhat, the alphas of our group, and they seemed to clash with each other constantly, leaving me to defuse the situation since no one else wanted to get in the middle of them.

Carley was one of our best. Her gun skills would come in handy when we needed it. For the time being there was really nothing for her to do besides lookout duty and helping watch Clementine when I wasn't around.

Katjaa and Duck, aka Kenny Jr, were the only real liabilities in the group. Duck couldn't do anything much besides being a kid. But, Katjaa was our medic, and a damn good one, I just wished Kenny would teach her something else useful, like how to use a gun.

Mark had a good amount of gun training as well, and he slowly grew on me and became a very good friend. Though he was young, he gave me great advice, and helped me out a little with teaching Clementine a thing or two about firearms.

As for my little charge herself, Clem had gotten a lot better at martial arts, and she worked hard to keep up with me. She was a smart girl, much smart than most kids her age would be in an apocalypse. She soaked up knowledge like a sponge; every technique I taught her, I worked hard to engrave into her mind. And she wasn't just advancing physically either, little by little, she was taking each lesson to heart. And that was all a teacher could ask of their student, even if I wasn't much of a teacher to begin with.

Mark broke the silence once again. "When I accidentally grabbed for Carley's rations last night, I thought she was gonna take off my hand." He said.

I chuckled, remembering that moment quiet clearly. Carley had almost growled at him. "I have no doubts she would have." I said. "We're all hungry. It's not like she meant to."

"Yeah. You're right." He said, focusing his attention back in front of us. "I wish I knew for sure how much food we have left."

"Ditto." I agreed. "You could always ask Lilly. She is the one handling it."

"Or mishandling it, if you ask Kenny."

"He just worried about Duck getting enough, that's all," I said. "It's the same with me. I just tend not to voice it as often. Clem's doing well, though, she hasn't complained as much as I expected her to."

"Speaking of Clementine, you both haven't been doing any active training lately." Mark stated.

I sighed. "I know, it sucks, but I don't want her passing out from training on an empty stomach. For now it's all mental games and meditation."

"That's understandable."

With the food running low and everyone close to starving, I had cut Clementine's physical training short; on one of our previous runs into Macon, I managed to grab a few books from a rather large book store. Math, reading, and a some fun to reading novels for when she was bored; Alice In Wonderland, I found out, was one of Clem's favorites, and instead of letting me read to her like I had originally planed to do, she decided to read it on her own, coming to me whenever there was a word she needed help with or couldn't understand. There was also the few tasers and the case of pepper spray I found behind the counter at the gun store. You'd think people would have taken those and not just the bullets and weapons, but you'd be wrong.

"You think Kenny's having anymore luck than we are out here," Mark asked, a few moments later.

I shrugged. "Hope so. Your guess is as good as mine." I said.

"Yeah, between the lack of food and Kenny and Lilly fighting all the time, things are getting pretty tense back a the Motor Inn." We stopped walking once we reached another clearing. There was nothing in sight, not even a bird, hell, I'd go for a possum at this point. "You know, Kenny's been talking about taking off once he gets that RV running."

"Well, that's not a bad idea," I said. "The Motor Inn is good for now, but we're gonna have to leave, eventually. It's not a permanent salutation. Kenny's a good guy, I trust him."

"I guess we'll see." Mark said, turning to me. "Can't say I blame him, though. Did you hear Larry going off on him last night? What's the old guy's deal, anyway. He seems like he has a problem with you in particular." He walked forward, just as a bird flew by overhead.

I sighed. "He's been that way since I met him. We got off on the wrong foot, now he's holding a grudge against me." That wasn't exactly the truth, but hey, it wasn't a complete lie, either.

Mark shook his head. "Well, he needs to get over it, and start finding a way to pull his weight. Heart problem or not, we should be all out here trying to find food. And I know Lilly thinks he's getting weaker, but the guy's all muscle. He a walking pile-driver, I know I wouldn't want to be stuck in a room with him."

"Try telling that to Lilly," I muttered, rolling my eyes. "She won't let the old man out of her sight for long. You do have a point, though."

The way things were, I didn't hold anything against Lilly. She wanted to keep her dad safe, and that I could understand that, however, Larry was going to have to do more than stay at camp and yell and shout at people. It was beginning to get really old, really fast.

"Didn't he punch you in the face once?"

I gave Mark a blink expression; that was the last thing I wanted anyone to bring up. "Can you, like, not bring that up, Mark." I said.

"Sorry, just asking." We both ended up spotting the bird that had flown by, resting in a tree. Mark moved forward, quick and silent, taking aim at it through the rifle's scoop; I came up and stopped him before he could take the shot.

"What the hell are you doing." I hissed at him, forcing the barrel of the gun down. "Don't be stupid, walker's are gonna hear that for miles."

"...I know, I'm just really frickin' hungry." Mark uttered, sadly.

I put a hand on his shoulder. "We all are, Marco. But one bird ain't worth it. I'd rather us be alive and hungry, than be dead and eaten."

Mark's shoulders slumped. He took one last look at the bird, then sighed. "Yeah."

"Ahhh!"

I jumped. The bird flying away at the sudden scream. It was happening, finally, the start of the next episode of the game. But, that scream was all wrong, it didn't sound like a man, it sounded like a girl.

"Who the hell was that?" Mark asked, looking alarmed.

"As if I would know!" I got up and took off, running in the direction of the scream. "Let's move, Mark."

The two of us ran through the woods, my hand holding the sheath of my katana in fear that it might fall free from my belt loop with how fast I was running. Another scream came, the trees blurring past us as we turned in another direction, down a small hill, and we saw what the problem was.

We ran into Ben and Travis like in game, but the girl who's leg was caught in the bear trap, I had no idea who she was. From the looks of the uniform she was wearing, a blue SM High blazer and white button up top, she must have went to the same school as the two boys. I had been expecting the teacher like in game, not some school girl.

"Well, shit." I muttered, glancing down at her.

"Oh shit!" Travis exclaimed, as he and Ben turned, noticing us. "Don't hurt us, please! We just want to help our friend and we'll leave, I swear!"

Kenny raced out from around the corner of a large tree in front of us. "Taylor, you guys okay?" He turned, his eyes going wide. "The hell happened here?"

Before I could answer, the girl let out a loud groan, tears streaming down her face from the pain. "Get it off! P-please! Get it off!" She begged.

Ben looked down at her, then turned to Travis. "Travis, maybe they can help!"

Travis shook his head. "No way! These could be the same guys that raided our camp, and we barely got away from that!"

"Whoa, wait a minute, we didn't raid anything." I said; it was hard to really have any kind of conversation with a girl suffering just a few feet away. "We're not gonna hurt you."

Travis turned to Ben. "Don't listen to him, Ben." Travis said to his schoolmate. Then, he turned back to us. "Please, just let us go! We're not a threat to you!"

"Kid, chill out," Kenny snapped the teenager. "We'll try to help you, but you've got to shut the fuck up."

"You don't even know us! So, you all can leave us alone!"

Mark walked forward a bit, turning his head to me. "This is fucked up. Taylor, we've got to help em'."

"I know that, Mark," I muttered. I didn't need him to remind me as if I wasn't already here. The clock was ticking, and it was only a matter of time before the walkers showed up in search of a fresh, living meal. As Travis and Ben continued to argue over rather or not to let us help, I walked forward, more concerned for the girl than I was about them.

"No one said we needed your help! Just leave!" Travis yelled at me. I ignored him; that was until he grabbed me tightly by the bicep. "Hey, I'm talking to y-!" Before he could finish, I cupped my free hand behind his head and threw up my left knee, driving it into his gut. Not too hard, but hard enough for him to get the message.

He let go of me coughing, his hands holding the spot between his ribs and his stomach. "I'd advise you not to grab me like that again. Unless you want to lose a tooth." I sneered, glaring at him. "I'm trying to help, but your making this harder than it has to be. Walkers will be showing up here any moment, dumb-ass."

"He's sorry! Please, just help my friend!" Ben pleaded. Only for Travis to yelled at him, again.

"Ben, shut up! He just kneed me in the gut for Christ's sake!" he said, with one hand still hold to his midsection. "My dad's Special Forces, I know what I'm doing! We can't trust them."

I rolled my eyes. I didn't have time for this. Kneeling down next to the girl, I gave her a small smile. "I'm gonna get you out of here, okay? Everything is going to be just fine."

"T-thank you! P-please, just get it off!" I nodded.

"Kid, whatever you're gonna do, make it fast!"

"I'm trying, Kenny!"

From what I could see, the bear trap was clamped just above her ankle, the wound bleeding out like a crimson river. The smell of blood almost made me gag, there was no way the walkers wouldn't smell this. Mark kneed down beside me, and examined the bear trap, before sending me a grim expression.

"This traps been altered, there's no release latch," the military worker stated.

"Goddammit." I cursed, turning to Mark. "Can we at least cut the chain or something?"

"Forget it. We used chain like that back at the base to lift ordnance, even if we had the axe with us, we're not getting through that."

Great, there goes that idea.

"...Oh, no." I heard Travis uttered, fearfully. I glanced up, just in time to see walkers beginning to shamble through the trees, their hungry moans seeming to come from all over, in every direction.

"Shit! Walkers! It's now or never, you two!" Kenny said, raising his gun.

He was right, we had to do this now. We had no more time left. I really, really didn't want to, but it looked like I had no choices but to use desperate measures.

"Mark, give me your belt, then go over there with those two. I got this." I motioned at the two high school students. As he did what I asked, I turned to the girl, her pained whimpers making my heart ache.

"Please, don't leave me here," she begged.

"I'm not going to, I'll get you out." I took the belt and buckled it around her thigh, tightly, getting a short yelp as a result. "You'll be okay. Just trust me." I pulled a bandana from my front pocket, and went to tie it around her eyes, but she stopped me by grabbing me by the wrist. "Put it on."

"What, are you crazy? Just get me out! Please!"

"Put it on, or I'll leave you here!" I shouted at her. It was only a threat, one that I would never go through with, but it got the job done. She let go of me and I quickly tied the black cloth around her eyes. The last thing I would want was to see someone cut my leg off. I could barely get shoots while looking at the needle, and this was ten times worse. "Relax, I'm getting you out right now."

I stood up, slowly unsheathing my katana so that she wouldn't hear the blade exit it's holder. I breathed in and out, calming myself, hands gripped tightly on the hilt. But, breathing did little to calm my heartbeat. "You can do this. You can do this." I uttered to myself.

"Kid, hurry the fuck up! I can't keep this up forever!" Kenny yelled, as he took another shot into the crowd of approaching walkers.

"I know that!" I yelled back. This wasn't easy, and I didn't think I could do it. Killing walkers is one thing; taking someone's leg. That was something else entirely.

I lift the sword over my head. The snarls of the walkers sounding closer than ever. Do it, do it! I can't leave this girl here like this, and I won't die here either. This was to save both of us! All of us! It's just a leg! No matter how much you don't want to, she'll thank you for this!

I mentally yelled at myself, trying to bring the blade down on her leg, but couldn't. Fuck! Come on, you have to do this, damn it!

"Kid! We're out of time! We have to go!" Kenny yelled.

"No, no! Please, don't leave me!"

I heartbeat sped up, and my mind raised. I was panicking, at the wrong time. I couldn't leave this girl here to die, I'd never forgive myself if I did! "Fuck this shit!" I rose the katana over my head so fast it was like a blur; the girl took the bandana off her eyes, just as I brought the sword down, cutting clean through half of her shin.

"Ahhhhh!"

"One more!" It should have went through completely, but my heart still wasn't fully in it. For a moment, just before the blade made contact with her trapped leg, I had hesitated. "Just one more time!"

"No, no, no, please, no!" The girl begged, her eyes wide as she starred at me, in shock from her bloody shin.

I went to try again. To get her out and stopped her suffering, but, Kenny grabbed me by the arm. His eyes filled with panic. "Come on! We gotta go, now!"

"B-but, we can't just leave her here!"

"If we don't go now, the walkers will surround us!"

Kenny was right; the walkers were too close to try anything else, they were coming from every direction in the dozens. My heart felt like it shattered, and for the first time, I felt like crying. I turned to the girl's face, her tears streaming down her cheeks, her eyes practically begging for me to help her.

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry." Apologizing wouldn't fix this. And it for damn sure wouldn't stop the walkers.

"Taylor," Mark walked up to me. I just walked away, not even bothering to reply. How could I, with what I was doing. Abandoning someone to die in one of the worse ways possible.

Then I remembered Travis. "No! We can't just leave Milly like that!" He shouted; I turned just in time to see him trying to wrestle the gun from Mark. "Give me the gun!"

"Goddamit, let go!" Mark said.

I stepped towards them, quickly but cautiously, in fear of the gun firing in my direction. "Travis, stop it!" I yelled at him. He didn't listen. "Travis!"

Bang!

The gun went off, the barrel pointed right at his stomach. He hit the ground not even a moment later, completely still.

Mark backed up, an expression of shock on his face at what had just happened. "Oh, God. Oh, God."

"Shit! What happened?" Kenny asked, running back to us. I cursed under my breath at Travis' stupidity. Who in there right mind fights for a load gun? "We gotta go, grab the kid and let's move!"

Mark ran over and pick up Travis, placing him over his shoulders before he, Ben, and Kenny took off. The walkers only a few meters away, with more coming out of the trees. I wasn't about to risk fighting them, and there was no time to cut the girl free now. I sent her an hurt and apologetic expression, as I sheathed my sword.

"Please, help me." She begged. "I don't want to die."

"I-I'm sorry." I ran in the direction of the Motor Inn, trying my best to ignore the girl's screams.

"No! Wait! Come back! Ahhhh!"

...Milly, another name to add to the list of people I couldn't save, and this time, there was no excuses for it. No memories. No headaches. Nothing. It was just me, and only me.

XxxX

The hike back to the Motor Inn was mostly in silence; not that I could speak much anyway after what had just happened. Even now, the forest seemed overly quiet, like the calm before the storm, or it might just be because there was no longer any screaming and yelling.

Milly ...that girl's scream were going to haunt me, I just knew it.

We were walking past the tree that we had tied a piece of rope around during one of our first hunts, when Kenny spoke.

"You alright, kid?" He asked.

I shook my head. "N-no," I said. "I let that girl die. I just left her there."

"There was nothing you could have done."

"Yes there was, Kenny! There was plenty I could have done." I said, looking over at the mustache styling man. "I could have gotten her out. But, I hesitated. I didn't even have the decency to put her out of her misery. I just ...left her for the fucking walkers."

Kenny sighed, putting a hand on my shoulder. "Kid, you tried. No ones gonna blame you."

I didn't need anyone to blame me. I already blamed myself for being such a weak child; but getting blamed by someone else would make it worse.

Maybe, that's what I deserve after what I did.

With Kenny and I being just a few feet in front of Mark and Ben, we were the first ones to spot the Motor Inn through the treeline, which was good for me. All I wanted to do right now was be alone by myself for a little while, in my own room.

I jogged through the bushes, and waved my hands as I spotted Lilly on top of the RV with a hunting rifle aimed in our direction. "Hey, open the gate! It's an emergency!"

"Oh my God. What happened?" Katjaa asked as they opened the makeshift gate to let us in. Mark was the first to hurry inside, with the unconscious Travis still over his shoulders. It only took a moment before we were completely surrounded and being questioned.

"Who the hell are these people?" Larry asked, with his usual frown.

"No time to explain," Mark said, walking past him.

"Get him into the truck, I'll see what I can do." Katjaa said, following the military worker to Kenny's pick-up. They lowered him into the back; a bit harder than they should have. The owner of the truck himself came up to them, not really sure what to do.

"Kat, can you fix him?"

"Jesus, Ken. I don't know."

I had just gotten done helping re-close the gate, which was actually a dumpster, when Clementine ran up to me, looking concerned. "Taylor, are you okay?" I wanted to say 'yeah', but I didn't want to lie to Clementine. The least I could do was treat her like a survivor, rather than just a kid, if nothing else. I shook my head. "What happened?"

"A lot, we'll talk about it later, okay," I said, putting a hand on her curly haired head. She nodded.

Everything was loud and hectic, however, that didn't stop our group leader (besides Kenny) from making her presence known. "Taylor!" Lilly called out over the commotion; things seemed to get really quiet after that. She just had that effect on people. "What the hell? You can't just be bringing new people here! What were you thinking?"

"You wanna calm down for a fuckin' minute!" Kenny retorted at her.

Oh, God. Here we go, again. I thought.

"Excuse me?" Lilly said.

Larry walked up to defend his daughter. "Hey, watch your mouth!"

"Guys?"

"I want to know why you thought bringing more mouths to feed was a good idea!"

"Guys."

"They would have died out there!"

"So what!" Larry said.

"Guys!" I yelled out, getting in between the two alphas before the conversation could get too heated. "Seriously, can we just calm down for a minute? Please?"

"Calm down," Lilly said. "No, we're talking about this now. We barely have enough food for ourselves, and you bring more people here. We are not responsible for every struggling survivor we come across. We have to worry about our group."

"We haven't even talked to these people, yet. Maybe they can be helpful." Carley added.

"Come on, Lilly, these are people." Mark said. "People trying to survive, just like us."

"The only reason you're here, is because you had food," Lilly said, looking at Mark. "Enough for all of us; now that foods almost gone. We have maybe a weeks worth left, barely even that."

"What, so we just leave them out there for the fuckin' walkers?" Kenny said.

"If that's what it takes to keep our group alive, then yeah!" Lilly answered.

Carley frowned. "Now, that's just harsh, Lilly. We can't treat people as if they're stray animals!"

"So what? We bring them back here and give them all our food?"

"I ...I'm not saying that!"

"Then, what are you saying, Carley?" Lilly asked. "Cause it sounds to me like you care about strangers, more than you care about this group."

Carley didn't say anything after that, but I could tell she wanted to. All this fighting and arguing was leading us nowhere. This group was falling apart, and we were barely half a year into the apocalypse.

"Lilly, It's not like we went out planning on bringing more people here," I interjected, calmly. "Things happened too fast, and we couldn't just leave them out there." I frowned a bit, but felt that I should at least give my reasons for bringing back Ben and Travis. "We already had to leave someone behind to die. We just left her for the walkers. Try to understand for a second."

Lilly gave a frown, then sighed, rubbing the bridge of her nose. "Taylor, we don't have enough food for this."

"And I'm not saying we should give them any," I said. I agreed with her, completely. "We have to watch out for our own first. I know that, let's give them a chance to rest and recover; we're all cranky because of the shortage of food. But, we have to keep a leveled head, we're a group, aren't we?"

"Taylor's right, we can't keep fighting like this." Carley said.

Lilly looked at the both of us. "You know what, fine, they can stay. But they don't get a damn crumb of our food, and once that one's injuries are patched up," she pointed towards Travis. "They're gone, understand?"

I nodded, muttering. "Crystal." I was exhausted, both emotionally and physically. I tried my best not to let it show, but I didn't quite see the point in doing so any longer. Letting out a long sigh, I began walking towards my room, shoulders slumped. All I wanted to do at this point was sleep; then something came to me, something really important I remembered. "Oh, and guys!" I began, turning part way towards the others, still in a group circle. Once I had their attention, I continued. "Travis is pretty hurt. If he doesn't make it, put something through his brain, a bullet or something."

"What the hell are you talkin' 'bout kid," Kenny asked.

"Yeah, Taylor. I'd like to know to," Lilly said, glaring. "He wasn't bitten, was he? I know you're not that stupid to bring someone with a bite, here."

I sighed. Not telling them the truth would only put them in danger, and since I wasn't going to be out here, it might end up with some unwanted death. For the group; that what I told myself.

"No ...no, he wasn't. But he'll come back anyway; it's not the virus that kills you, it's the infection from the bite. The mouth of a human is a pretty nasty place under normal circumstances, so can you imagination what the mouth of a dead, man eating, infectious person is like, all that rotten blood and organ tissue." I shuddered at the thought, stopping to let my words sank in. From the looks on their faces, except for Ben's, they were starting to connect the dots. "The virus is just dormant until death."

"H-hold up, what are you saying?" Carley asked, her face going slightly pale.

"Kid, this ain't nothin' to joke about," Kenny said.

"I wish I was joking, Ken," I chuckled. "I really do."

Lilly strolled across the parking lot, and grabbed me by the collar, forcing me to face her fully. "T-Taylor, how long have you known about this?" I didn't answer, and avoiding eye contact didn't make it any better. She tightened her grip and shook me. "How fucking long?"

"A while," I answered, calmly. "I-I didn't want to scare anyone. And part of me wishes I didn't know, but I do."

"Dad, what's going on?" Duck asked, tugging on his father shirt sleeve.

"I don't understand, either," Clementine spoke up, her voice filled with confusion. "Why's everyone so upset?"

"Clem, I should have told you. I should have told all of you from the start." I said, looking down at Lilly, then back to the group. They'd find out later on when Travis died and came back, so what was the harm in telling them now? "We all have it. You, me, Clementine, we all have the virus. We're all infected."

There it was, out in the open. The big reveal. Everyone in the group was silent, and Lilly let go of my collar, looking completely in shock. I couldn't blame her. I couldn't blame any of them; while I had come to terms with knowing I was a carrier pretty much at the get-go, this was gonna take some time for them to accept.

"Bullshit!" Larry shouted, breaking the silence. "That's complete fucking bullshit!"

"Ask Ben, he'll tell you," I said.

Everyone turned to Ben. "He's right, no matter how you die, we all come back as those things." He answered, nervous from all the sudden attention. "It's just how it is; me and my classmates locked ourselves in our gym when all this first started. We thought we were safe, but then one of the girls, Jenny Pitcher or something, she couldn't handle it and popped a full bottle of pills from the nurses office in the bathroom while we were all sleeping. One of my friends went into the bathroom the next morning, and, well, you can guess what happened. She wasn't bitten or scratched. She just ...died, and she still came back."

"...Oh, Christ." Mark uttered. He starting walking away from the group, shoulders slump. "I-I need to sit down."

Kenny shook his head, then turned to his wife, who was still processing the tragic truth. "Kat." She looked up at his face, her own almost pale. "I need you to take care of that kid, alright."

"Ken. What are we going to do?"

"I don't know. What we can. We're okay right now, but that boy needs your help."

Katjaa nodded weakly, and went to take care of the wounded high school student. It was only the afternoon, and I, and maybe even the others, were done for the day. However, before I could relax, Clementine came first; she always came first before myself or anyone else if I had anything to say about it.

"Clementine," I called out to her, waving her over to me. "Come here for a moment, hon." She walked over to me, her face not showing her usual cheerful expression, but she didn't look upset, either. The adults were having a hard time with this. I could only imagine what was going through her head. "Are you alright?"

"Y-yes," she nodded.

"Are you sure?"

"...N-no."

"You wanna talk about it?" She nodded, again. I took her by the hand and lead her over to the staircase leading up to the Motor Inn's upper rooms. We sat down on the second step, away from the ears of everyone else in camp. An eight-year-old shouldn't have to go through this. Not alone, and defiantly not without their parents. "Clem, everything is going to be fine. I know this is scary, but-."

"Am I going to die?" She asked out of the blue, looking down at her shoes.

I shook my head, shocked at her question. "No! no. You're are not going to die, Clem."

"B-but, we're all sick, aren't we? That's means Mom and Dad are sick, too." She turned her head and looked up at me, her eyes wet with tears, her voice quivering. "I-I don't want to become like those monsters. I don't want to hurt anyone."

I pulled her into a soft embrace with one arm wrapped around her shoulder. Did Lee have to go through this after they found out from Ben; the last thing I wanted to do was scare Clementine. But, there was no way to avoid it. She had to know this. "There, there. It's okay. Nothing's gonna happen to you, and you're not going to become a walker."

"I'm scared, what if I wake up one day and I'm a walker."

"You won't."

"H-how do you know that?"

"'Cause, that not how this virus works." I stated. "I know you're scared. I was, too." God knows I wasn't. Did I really have to lie at a time like this? Even though it was a small one, It made me feel worse than I already did. I sighed. "...But, you're strong, Clem, and you're smart, and I have no doubt in my mind that you will be one of the last ones standing when this is all over." I smiled and smoothed out her curly, noticing for the first time that her hat was missing. "Where's your hat?"

"I don't know. Will you help me find it?"

"Sure, I'll help you find it later, alright. I know how important it is to you." Clementine nodded, whipping her eyes as she let a little smile form. "Now, go run off and play. Maybe do some drawing with Duck for a little while."

She did just that, leaving me to my own thoughts. I got up and started climbing the stairs towards my room; the second door from the stairs. I turned the nob and pushed open the door, not bothering to close it as I took my sword off my hip and threw myself down on the cheap, but okay looking, mattress, the weapon lying beside me under my palm.

After everything that had happened today, all I wanted to do was sleep. A short nap, to rest my exhausted mind.

"I fucked up today," I muttered into the pillow, thinking back to the girl that I had left behind to die. The one I could have saved. "I really fucked up."

I laid there, letting my mind wonder; how was my sister doing? Was my family looking for me, or not. Did they even know I was gone? I had so many questions, yet I barely had any answers.

And so that concludes this chapter, the next one will be out soon, within the next week or so.

Peace~!