A few hours later…
Clementine had awoken to the sound of thunder coming from outside the shed, the rain pouring down on its roof. She checked her arm only to find it in worse condition than before; the bleeding had stopped, but the entire area around the bite was severely bruised, with a large amount of pus leaking out from the wound. Her arm was stricken with intense pain as soon as she touched her injury. As the pain subsided, Clementine began to observe her makeshift prison, looking for anything she could use to help her escape.
"It's okay, you're gonna be fine. Just think back to the dairy; there's always a way out" she said trying to reassure herself.
She turned to her right and noticed a workbench in mint condition, noticing only a few construction tools on it, as well as a rusty rake on the ground next to her. However, none of them could help her get out of her current predicament. On the wall in front of her, she noticed an anchor hanging on the wall, the ends of it looking sharp enough to easily impale something with enough force. To the right of the anchor was a blue utility box with no locks on it. Clementine immediately went to open the box, but was disappointed to find nothing useful but a spool of fishing line.
"If I have to, I guess I could use these as stitches." she said to herself as she placed the wire on the workbench.
As she closed the box, Clementine noticed a decayed part of the wall hidden behind the box. She moved the box next to the anchor, and noticed a hole in the wall boarded up by one 2x4 piece of wood. She tried to pull the board off with her bare hands, but it was no use as it was firmly hammered in with nails.
"There's gotta be a hammer around here somewhere." Clementine said to herself.
As she turned around. she noticed the hilt of a hammer slightly protruding from a makeshift shelf high above her. She walked over to the shelf and reached out with her one good arm in an attempt to knock the hammer off the shelf, but her fingers ended up moving the hammer farther away from her, and out of her reach. She sighed in frustration as she looked for a way up onto the shelf. Looking to her left, Clementine noticed a table that looked firm enough to hold her up. She helped herself up onto the table, and had a clear view of the hammer hidden behind a white paint can. Leaning on the edge of the table, she reached out as far as she could trying to reach the hammer. However, the shelf started to make heavy creaking sounds, and as soon as Clementine grabbed the hammer, the chains holding the shelf up broke, causing her to fall off the table and onto the wooden floor on her bad arm. As she slowly helped herself up from the fall, she couldn't help but cry a little in pain as she had noticed several splinters now embedded around her bite, giving her ever so more reason to get out of the shed as soon as possible. Once the pain subsided, Clementine lifted up the fallen shelf to retrieve the hammer that had fallen under it once it broke off. She then walked over to the hole in the wall and began to hook the nails in the 2x4 with the back side of the hammer, which came off with ease. Clementine then removed the board from the hole and began to kick at it a few times, with the third kick creating a hole small enough for her to crawl through.
"Alright, that's a good first step." she said to herself with a smile, proud of what she had done.
As Clementine exited the shed, she had noticed it was very late at night, the rain pouring down on her former prison's roof.
"They've got a doctor, he's got to have something." she said to herself as she looked towards the cabin, which she could see light coming from in several windows.
As she walked out towards the front door of the cabin, the rain started to completely soak Clementine's clothes, the water washing away the blood on her face. Once she got onto the front porch of the cabin, she heard muffled voices coming from the window to the right of her, as she slowly peeked her head out to see Rebecca and Alvin talking to each other in one of the cabin's bedrooms, with one lantern lighting up most of the room.
"Don't pull that bullshit on me! I saw you get soft outside with that girl." Clementine heard Rebecca say to her husband.
"She's just a little girl Bec!" Alvin replied to her.
"Well that's not good enough!"
"What did you want me to do? Put a bullet in her?"
"I want you to start doing what's best for our family!"
"Bec, come on. You know all I care about is you and our child."
"Well that's not what I saw out there! Ugh, I need a goddamn drink." Rebecca mumbled as she left the room, leaving Alvin alone.
Rebecca was right about one thing though, Alvin WAS feeling uneasy about trapping a little girl in their shed for the night without helping her out. Clementine knew that he was not like the others, thinking that he could help her. With that, she took her good hand and slightly knocked on the bedroom window. Alvin then looked up to the window to look for the source of the noise, and was shocked to see Clementine behind it. He then walked over to the window and opened it up to talk to her.
"What the hell do you think you're doing out here?" He nervously whispered to her.
"Please, you have to help me. I know you will, you're not like the others." she replied.
"What? No uh...I'm not who you think I am. If anyone finds out you got out, they're gonna kill you for sure!"
"You don't have to worry, I can take care of myself; I won't let anyone know you helped me."
Alvin then thought about it for awhile, but finally gave in. "Fine dammit I'll help you."
He walked over to the dresser and opened up the top drawer, pulling two items out of it before closing it up and walking back to Clementine.
"I couldn't find any bandages, but this is better than nothing" he told her as he handed her a washcloth with a floral design on it. "And I also got you a juicebox, if you're uh thirsty or something." he continued as he handed her a pocket sized apple juicebox.
"Thank you." The eleven year old replied.
Just then, a knocking sound was heard from outside the room. Alvin quickly turned to face the door, while Clementine ducked under the windowsill.
"House meeting in five minutes Alvin." The two of them heard Carlos say from behind the door.
"Yeah okay, uh, be there in a bit." Alvin replied.
Clementine then stood up from under the windowsill.
"Now listen you gotta get back to the shed, like now." he told the girl as he shut the window down tight, proceeding to open the bedroom door and head into the kitchen for the house meeting.
While she was grateful for his help, Clementine knew that she wouldn't make it through the night just with some bandages; she still needed a needle to sew up her arm, and something to disinfect the bite. With that she decided to slowly walk around the cabin and look for a way into the cabin. She stopped when a loose board nailed up behind the cabin caught her attention. Clementine began to pull out her hammer and pull the nails out from the board, grunting from the required force. Once she pulled the board loose, she turned around to see a couple of walkers shambling around in the forest, their moaning in the pouring rain bringing shivers down her spine. Realizing she had to hurry, Clementine quickly scurried through the hole and crawled under the cabin, looking for an alternate way inside. As she crawled under, she could hear the sounds of several people walking, probably getting ready for Carlos' "house meeting".
Looking straight up Clementine noticed a steel trapdoor. She tried to push it open with her good arm, but the door was locked shut. Clementine searched her pockets for the pocketknife she got from the abandoned campsite, but remembered that Omid had had it. The eleven year old then tried to break the lock on the door using the hook end of her hammer, with a little bit of time spent on finding a good angle, she was able to break the lock, albeit chipping a part of the hammer's hook off. Sliding the hammer back into her pocket, Clementine pushed on the trapdoor with her right arm, noticing the room she was in was pitch black. Breathing a sigh of relief, the little girl pulled herself inside of the small room, and into the cabin.
As soon as Clementine entered the room, she started feeling around for the door. Finding the doorknob, the eleven year old peeked her head out slightly to look for anyone inside. Noticing that no one was inside, she slowly walked into what was the living room of the cabin, slowly closing the door behind her. The room was illuminated by a few candles on a table in the center of the room, which also had a chessboard on it. surrounding the table, were two green couches, both covered in blankets. A yellow and orange plaid shirt was hanging on one of the couches, which Clementine assumed was another one of Carlos' shirts.
To her right, she heard voices coming from behind one of the doors. Walking towards the source of the noise she slightly pushed the door open to see what was going on. When she got a good view, she saw Carlos, Rebecca, Alvin, Luke, Pete, and Nick all talking together in what looked like a kitchen. Nick's back was blocking most of her vision in the room.
"Where's Sarah?" Clementine heard Nick ask Carlos.
"She's got her book upstairs, she doesn't need to be a part of this." the doctor replied.
Shortly after, Nick stepped to the right of the room, giving Clementine a clear view of what the group was gathered around. She quickly put her mouth over her hand to cover a gasp when she saw Omid bound to a chair, his mouth fortunately not covered.
"I told you guys, the girl and I aren't working for anyone!" he said to the group.
"And you expect us to believe you that easily?" Rebecca retorted.
"Rebecca calm down, I think he's telling the truth." Luke added.
"What? Don't tell me you believe this bullshit story, Luke."
"But why the Hell would Carver send a little girl too? He could've just sent this guy and done the same thing." Luke explained
"Luke's right. Far as I can remember, the only kids there besides Sarah back at his place were that Becca girl and some other little girl. Clementine looked too old to be that girl." Pete said, supporting Luke.
"Exactly! So now that's settled, you think you can take care of her and let us go?" Omid asked the group.
"Unfortunately no, we're waiting until morning to make sure the girl wasn't bit by a lurker; I'm not wasting supplies on a bite victim." Carlos explained to him.
"What? But she'll die in there if she's not treated!"
"I'm sorry, but if you're claims are true, and she was not bit by a lurker, I'm sure she'll be fine"
Omid then looked behind Nick at the slightly open door, and had a quick look of shock on his face when he saw Clementine peeking her head through the door. The eleven year old motioned for him to stay calm by notifying him to be quiet. Omid then gave her a quick nod, as she closed the door before anyone could find her. After seeing what the group was doing to Omid, Clementine now had a second objective to her mission; after she took care of her arm, she would sneak back in when everyone was asleep, break Omid out, and the two of them would leave and continue their search for Christa.
Clementine noticed a flight of stairs to her right, and decided to search the floor fo the necessary supplies. She slowly walked up the stairs, hoping they would not creak and alert the group to her presence. Once she reached the top of the steps, the eleven year old noticed in front of her a closed door, with a sign to the right of it reading "Bathroom". Thinking she might find some medical suppiles inside.
Opening the door, Clementine entered the small bathroom, only containging an empty medicine closet to her right, a bathtub with drapes over it, a sink filled with water, and a medicine cabinet right above it. Walking towards the medicine cabinet, the eleven year old opened it with ease, finding at first nothing helpful but toothpaste and several toothbrushes, as well as a box of dental floss. On the same shelf as the floss, a knitted tomato had what appeared to be a needle stuck in it. Clementine proceeded to pull the needle from the tomato. Luckily it had a hole in it just wide enough to stick a thread through it.
"Looks pretty clean…" she said to herself, noticing not a single stain of blood or other liquid on it.
After observing the needle, she placed it in her left pocket. All she needed now was to find something to clean her bite, and then get back to the shed.
Clementine went to turn the knob on the bathroom door to leave, but stopped when she heard what sounded like footsteps coming towards her.
"That man sometimes, I swear!" She heard Rebecca say to herself as she was appraoching the bathroom door.
Clementine had to act quick; any second now Rebecca would enter and notice the elven year old snooping around the cabin. Thinking quickly, she opened the closet doors and crouched inside, closing the doors shut when she got in. Just a few moments after she hid herself, Rebecca entered the bathroom, currently not noticing her. The pregnant woman appeared to be in slight pain, as she held her stomach with her right arm. She then went over to the sink, splashing some of the water in her face.
"I just need to have this baby and..oh god…." Clementine heard her say as she washed her face.
Rebecca then dried her face off with a towel and stared into the mirror above the sink for a moment.
"Let it be okay, and let it be HIS." she said, looking up towards the ceiling as if it was a prayer.
Clementine's eyes widened in shock upon hearing this. If it wasn't Alvin's whose baby was it then? Before she could think of a possible answer, Rebecca left the bathroom, closing the door behind her.
Waiting a few moments to make sure she was gone, Clementine then slowly exited the closet and then the bathroom. With the amount of muttering downstairs being very quiet, the little girl assumed that the meeting was almost over. She had to find something to disinfect her arm quickly before the meeting ended.
Clementine walked towards the door in front of her, which she thought most likely led to a bedroom. She was about to open the door when she stopped herself; Carlos had mentioned that Sarah was in her room upstairs. What if she was awake when she opened the door? She be spotted for sure. Pressing her ear against the door, she heard nothing but a slight breathing noise. Assuming Sarah was most likely asleep, Clementine slowly opened the door. Her heart rate spiked up though as she opened it, as she did not see Sarah asleep in her bed, but rather her very awake and reading a book. Clementine tried to close the door as quickly as possible, but Sarah noticed her before she could, shocked by her appearance. Acting quickly, Clementine motioned for her to be quiet.
"You're not supposed be here." Sarah whispered to the eleven year old.
"I know that, but I need help. Can you help me?" Clementine responded.
"I'm...not supposed to be talking to you, my dad CAN'T know."
"Why? What would he do?" Clementine asked, fearing the worst.
"Get mad at me." Sarah replied
"Anything else?"
"Yeah. Then he says he's disappointed, and that he loves me and doesn't want anything bad to happen to me."
"Really? That's it?" Clementine asked, slightly annoyed by her answer.
"Yeah, it's the worst. What happened your arm?" Sarah asked, noticing Clementine's left sleeve soaked with blood.
"A dog bit me." She replied.
"Sounds scary. I bet it hurts."
"Well you dad didn't seem to care about it."
"What? No, my dad wouldn't do that, he always helps people…"
"He's willing to let me DIE just to prove that its a dog bite! Please, I need your help. Do you know where your group keep their medical supplies? I just need something to clean it."
After pondering for a few moments, the teenager answered Clementine.
"My dad's got some stuff that he uses when I get a cut. I'll see if I can find it."
"Great, thank you."
"I'm Sarah by the way."
"I'm Clementine."
Sarah then opened up some drawers in a dresser next to her bed looking for anything to help Clementine. Halfway through her search however, the doctor's daughter stopped and looked at Clementine.
"We're friends right?" she asked her.
"Huh?" Clementine responded, puzzled.
"We could be best friends! I haven't met another girl my age since WAY before. Rebecca's old, and by the time her baby's born, I'll be like super old." Sarah explained to her.
"But we're not the same age…" the eleven year old responded.
"What?"
"You said we were the same age, we're not."
"Well how old are you? I'm fifteen."
"Eleven."
"Well, we can still be friends though right?"
"Yeah...We're friends."
"You promise? It's important; freinds have to trust each other no matter what."
"Yes, I promise." Clementine said irritated.
"Me too." Sarah replied, holding her right pinky finger out.
Taking the guess, Clementine walked up to Sarah and held out her right pinky too, linking them together.
"A pinky swear is forever." Sarah told her.
Afterward, the teenager went back to searching through the drawers, pulling out a bottle of peroxide.
"I found this. WIll that work?"
"Yeah, that's perfect." Clementine responded. takign the bottle from Sarah's hand.
"You can't do it here though, someone will find you!"
"I know. I've got a plan for that."
Clementine then began to leave the room, slowly closing the door behind her.
"Thanks Sarah." She said to her before completely closing it.
Clementine now had all the supplies she needed to fix her arm. All she had to do now was get back to the shed, deal with her bite, then get back in and break Omid out. She slowly crept down the stairs, entered the closet, and went out through the trapdoor back to the shed.
Clementine re entered the shed, her arm growing more and more painful as the time went on. Once she crawled inside, she placed all of her equipment on the workbench, which consisted of the peroxide, needle and fishing line, hammer, and the rag and juice box that Alvin gave her. Rolling her left sleeve up exposing the bite, the eleven year old unscrewed the cap on the peroxide, taking the bottle into her hand.
"This is gonna suck" she told herself as she began to pour the peroxide onto her bite.
As soon as the liquid reached the infected skin, her arm exploded with pain, causing her to drop the peroxide bottle onto the ground in shock, the remainder of the liquid spilling over the floor of the shed. As she let out a loud shriek of pain covered by clenching her teeth together, the peroxide began to clean her bite, as white foam formed around the deepest part of the wound.
"Okay….Okay I'm good...I'm fine" Clementine told herself, trying to keep herself together through the pain.
When the pain subsided, she grabbed the juice box and took two sips from it, the sweet flavor of the juice calming her nerves a bit.
"Now the fun part." she said as she placed the juice box down, looking at the needle on top of the fishing wire.
Taking the wire and needle into her hands, Clementine pulled out a long thread of the wire, looping it through the needle and and making a knot, biting off the thread she pulled out.
"Now...just like last time...just how Christa showed me…" she encouraged herself, as her hand trembled holding the needle.
Bracing herself, Clementine thrusted the needle through the top of the bite, the needle going getting stuck in the middle of the bite. A pain even greater than the peroxide shot through her left arm, causing her to slam down on the workbench with her right arm to bear through the pain. After it had subsided, she pushed the needle through the rest of her skin, the sharp point of the needle pushing right through. The little girl's arm filled with just as much pain as before as the needle pierced her, her eyes on the verge of tears. She continued the process three more times, each time the pain increases to unbearable levels. By the time she got to her last stitch, she was almost about to pass out due to the pain rushing through her arm. As she drove the needle through, she accidentally aimed too low, with the needle going straight into her arm and stopping at her bone. Feeling her head get very light and her vision blurry, Clementine struggle to get the needle out, wiggling it at an attempt to break it free. Once she pulled it out, a small pool of blood filled her bite and poured out onto the workbench. After pulling it out, she drove the needle through the rest of the suture and bit off the end of the wire, pulling her stitches together. As soon as she finished stitching herself, she instantly grabbed the juice box and drank the rest of it, helping ease the pain of the bite while it subsided.
Once the pain had stopped, Clementine took the rag that Alvin gave her and began to wrap it around her arm. Just when she was about to finish, the rag fell out oher hand and fell on the ground next to the hole she made in the shed to get out.
Reaching down to grab it, she gasped in fright when a walker suddenly crawled into the shed from the hole and grabbed Clementine's right foot. She tried to pull herself up onto the bench and grab the hammer, but the walker was stronger, pulling her down onto the ground. Under the bench she noticed several bricks stacked together. Grabbing one of the bricks with her hand, she slammed it down on the walker's hand, breaking all of the bones in it. This did not stop its pursuit of the eleven year old however, as he pounced on top of her, his face propped up in the air against her foot. Using all her might, Clementine kicked the walker off her, his head slamming against the wall of the shed. Looking for a weapon, Clementine picked up the rake lying on the ground to her left, and thrusted at the the walker, piecing its neck. In the struggle, the eleven year old pushed the walker back to the wall, impaling him on the anchor and disemboweling him in the process. Rendered immobile on the anchor, Clementine grabbed the hammer off the bench, and swung the hammer's hooked end into the walker's forehead. Filled with fear and adrenaline, she hacked away without stopping, continuously swinging at the monster's face again, and again, and again. On the fourth swing, the walker stopped squirming, the hammer finally striking its brain. Clementine sighed a breath of relief, its blood splattered all over her face. Shortly after, the shed's doors swung open, with Luke, Pete, Nick, Alvin, Rebecca, and Carlos all shocked the event.
"Holy shit." Luke said eyes wide as he opened the shed.
"What the hell?" Alvin added.
Clementine then proceeded to rip the hammer out of the walker's skull, with some of its grey matter still stuck on it, then dropped it onto the ground and turned to face the group.
"How the hell did it get in there?" Nick asked
"Little girl's tough as nails…" Pete remarked.
Luke then walked over to Clementine.
"You alright?" he asked her.
"I'm Still...NOT...Bitten. I never was. And you, left me out here to die!" Clementine responded, furious with the group.
Looking at her injured arm, Luke noticed that it was haphazardly stitched up.
"You patched yourself up?" he asked her.
"Where'd you get that stuff?" Nick demanded, shoving past Luke.
"Did she steal from us?" Rebecca added.
"Yeah. How do we know your friend didn't smuggle any to you?" Nick proposed.
"Now hold on Nick this doesn't change a thing. She hasn't done anything to us." Pete said trying to calm him down.
"I did, and I'm sorry, but Omid had nothing to do with it; I snuck in while you were all in your meeting. He had no idea." Clementine explained.
"Good. You should be." Rebecca snarled at her.
"Okay that's enough Rebecca! Any of you would've done the same thing if you were her." Pete retorted, defending the eleven year old.
"Damn lurkers sneaking around...We better get inside." Alvin said, interrupting their argument.
"I'll take a look at her once we're inside." Carlos added as the group walked back towards. the cabin.
"You hungry?" Luke asked Clementine as they walked back.
Clementine simply ignored him however, walking ahead of him as the rain poured down from above.