Chapter Fourteen: To Pluck a Lilly Part II
Mitch and Clementine rushed back to Minnie to do whatever they could for her, for whatever that was worth. They were in tears themselves, so they weren't in much of a position to calm someone else down, let alone a girl having quite possibly the most hysteric episode of her life. Clementine at least had some experience dealing with emotional people, and was more in touch with her emotions than Mitch. Clementine sat beside Minnie, immediately embracing her. She wasn't sure what good it was going to do, but she had to try something.
"Minnie, I'm so sorry," was all Clementine could think to say as she hugged her as tightly as she could. "We're gonna get her for this, I swear."
"Clementine?" Minnie got out in between a sob, looking to Clementine with disbelieving eyes. "I thought you hated me."
"Minnie . . ." Clementine shook her head, "Forget about that! That shit doesn't even matter right now," Clementine assured her, hugging her even more intensely.
As Clementine tried her best to calm Minnie down at least enough to travel, Mitch was boiling with anger he was just aching to let out. He and Ruby had their differences throughout their lives, but everyone in the camp had a soft spot for Ruby. Underneath all that sass and yelling was one of the most caring souls in the world. And now she was dead. There was no getting around it. Lilly needed to die for this.
Then Mitch heard the unmistakable sounds of the groans of a walker. He spun around on instinct, seeing that the goon Clementine had shot in the neck had died and reanimated, and was now crawling towards the distracted girls.
It wasn't much, but for now it'd have to do.
He bent down, grabbing a sizable nearby rock before marching over to the walker, now trying to get up on its feet. Mitch smashed the rock against the walking corpse's skull, sending it sprawling back to the ground. He stood over it, stepping on its chest so it couldn't get back up, and hurled the large rock down with both hands on the undead raider's skull, crushing it like a nut. The walker went limp, its limbs falling lifelessly to the earth once more.
"You fucking scum," Mitch cursed as he spat through drying tears on what was left of the raider.
"Minnie, we have to get out of here and back to the school," Clementine said, keeping her eyes on the trees. "All that noise has probably attracted more walkers."
"Wait, what about Lilly?" Mitch asked as he came back to them. "We can't just let her go! She'll make it back to wherever the fuck she came from, and come do this again."
"Mitch," Clementine glared at him, for she imagined Minnie was in no condition to partake in such a thing.
"No," Minnie suddenly said, trying to brush the tears from her eyes as best she could. "No, he's right. We need to go after her."
"What?" Clementine asked, looking back to Minnie in confusion.
"He's right! If we let her go now, she'll just come back again, and next it'll be someone else. Next time it could be any one of us. Besides, she can't get away with this," Minnie made clear, her hand molding into a very noticeable tight fist.
Clementine eyed Minnie worriedly. She had already viciously cleaved Abel's head into mincemeat, there was no telling what she'd do to Lilly if she got her hands on her. She knew for a fact Mitch's heart was filled with vengeful desires as well, but Clementine didn't think now was the time for it.
"No, we need to regroup, make a plan."
"Fuck your plans," Mitch said defiantly. "She's wounded, she's bleeding all over the place, now is the perfect time to finish her. We've hunted fleeing prey before Clementine, it'll be just like that."
"It's not the same!" Clementine said back.
"Yes, it is!" Minnie almost yelled, startling Clementine a bit as Minnie managed to rise to her feet. "You wanna go back because of me, right? You can worry about me later, okay Clementine? If we go back now, we'll miss our chance, and I'm not letting her walk away from this," Minnie said back to Clementine.
Clementine kept looking into her eyes, noticing her distinct change in attitude. That glare. It was the same glare she saw after Minerva verbally tore Violet apart. Minerva wanted blood, and so did Mitch, and Clementine was losing this fight.
"She still has a gun," Clementine pointed out.
"So do we," Minerva replied, walking over to the decimated remains of Abel. She bent down, retrieving his sawed-off shotgun from his body, prying it from his grasp. She looted his body for ammo, finding a good amount of shells.
"Guys, this is a bad idea," Clementine said, worrying for both of their mental states. Mitch seemed all too eager to throw his life away, and Minnie's rage was edging on uncontrollable.
"If you don't wanna help, then go back, but we're not going back until Lilly is dead," Mitch told her.
Minnie rose from the dead body of Abel, standing next to Mitch in agreement.
"Jesus Christ guys," Clementine said with a shake of the head.
Neither one of them was backing down, and Clementine wasn't about to let them go after Lilly of all people alone.
"Fine, I'm coming with you. I can't let you do this alone," Clementine reluctantly went along with it, spotting the other dead raider's rifle.
Minnie had spent a whole year being a slave soldier for these raiders, and by the way she was looking over Abel's shotgun, she seemed more than knowledgeable.
"Abel might have been scum, but at least he took care of his weapon," Minnie said as snapped shut the shotgun.
"Mitch, have you ever fired a gun before?" Clementine asked as she picked up the rifle, starting to rummage the corpse of the walker for ammo. On him, she found a revolver as well, with a full six rounds of ammo.
"No, we never had any guns here, and I came here when I was like nine," Mitch admitted, feeling a little outclassed.
"Here, it's easy. You don't need to worry about reloading it right now, because we don't have enough bullets anyway."
"No, you can show me later," Mitch said, stopping Clementine in her tracks. "We don't have the time. You stick to what you're good at, I'll stick to what I'm good at. I'll grab a spear from the shed, I'm the best arm in the school," he said confidently, heading towards the shack.
"Well, alright then," Clementine said, turning to Minnie. "You want it?" Clementine asked, thinking a revolver would be more useful in precise situations than a shotgun.
"Yeah, sure," Minnie said, taking the firearm from her grasp. "Thank you for doing this Clementine," Minerva said to her as earnestly as she could muster. "This means a lot."
"Yeah, well, let's just do it," Clementine said, for she was still reluctant.
It's not that she didn't agree that Lilly needed to die, but there were plenty of ways something like this this could go wrong, especially when one of her companions was a headstrong macho meathead with a death wish, and the other was a recovering traumatized girl who was now bordering on psychotic.
"Alright," Mitch said as he came down the steps, multiple spears in hand. "Let's hunt this bitch down."
Lilly made her way through the woods, trudging along, fleeing like a hunted, wounded animal. This could not have gone worse for her. She had ended up killing one of the kids she was supposed to bring back, and she had lost Abel and another soldier. Things were looking grim for her, and they were about to get grimmer.
She stopped for few moments, leaning against a tree to catch her breath. She kept pressure on her wound, looking into her pocket for some emergency bandages that would do for the time being. She didn't figure Clementine or the others would be coming after all.
She figured wrong.
When she was almost done applying the bandage, she heard the sound of leaves being crumpled to her left. An animal maybe? Lilly looked, to see Minerva only about fifteen feet away, a death glare in her eyes as she raised Abel's shotgun. Lilly's eyes widened.
She broke away from the tree just in time before Minerva fired, the buckshot blasting apart the bark of the tree where Lilly just was.
"Fuck," Lilly panted, trying to get away, trying to run in a diagonal fashion instead of a straight line, deeper into the woods.
Lilly hadn't realized that the kids would take the guns off her raider's bodies. Minerva had taken Abel's shotgun, and was now using it on her.
"Lilly!" came Minerva's violent, vengeful shrill, as she called after her, her pained voice echoing through the woods like a siren. "You're not running away from this!"
Lilly could now hear footsteps behind her as she darted through the trees. More than one pair. A rifle shot rang out, grazing Lilly's leg as she retreated. Lilly stumbled to the ground, but picked herself up in an instant and kept going, now keeping a hand on her bleeding leg. It was just a flesh wound, but it was a painful one. Lilly turned back as she was running to fire at the two figures pursuing her, not really trying to hit anything, just a desperate attempt to scare them off.
But it wasn't working. Another rifle shot was fired after her, this one just missing her by inches as it struck the tree she passed. After more than a minute of dodging trees and trying to throw them off her trail using elusive maneuvers, it looked like she might have lost Clementine and Minnie, at least for the time being. They weren't right behind her anymore, at least, and she could no longer hear their footsteps. She kept running, just to gain as much distance as possible.
She looked behind her again, making sure she wasn't being followed. She saw no one. Just then, a projectile came flying from seemingly nowhere, lodging itself in the tree right in front of her. A spear. Lilly turned to run face first into the rod of the spear. Her rifle flew from her hands as she crashed to the ground hard, an intense pain right above her mouth where she clothes-lined the wooden handle. Lilly picked herself up as quickly as she could, unable to find her lost rifle.
"Fuck!" she cursed, turning to see her assailant, now stepping into the open.
"That looked like it really fucking hurt," said Mitch as he exposed himself, a spear in each hand. "Good."
Lilly glared at him, not intimidated in the least. She would have to fight. Mitch was a good enough arm to nail in the back if she tried to run. She drew her knife.
"Don't fuck with me kid, I've killed a hundred headstrong punks just like you," she said as Mitch approached, sidestepping to get a better angle.
There was no fear in Mitch's eyes. Whatever was about to happen here, he seemed ready to accept it. He wasn't letting Lilly go without a fight.
"She's over here!" he suddenly screamed out into the woods. "I've got her over here!"
"Mitch?" came Clementine's sudden, concerned voice.
"Shut the fuck up!" Lilly screamed as she came at him.
Mitch readied a spear and chucked it at Lilly's face in a quick, shocking motion. Lilly, caught off guard, jerked her head to the side, but not quite enough. The sharp side of the spear ripped through the side of her face, slicing her cheek badly.
Lilly screamed in agony as Mitch charged her. Unafraid.
Lilly managed to recover enough to dodge his thrust, slashing her knife across Mitch's arm as she jumped back. Mitch cringed as the gash on his arm began to bleed, quite badly. He clutched his arm tightly, still managing to hold the spear in the other as he faced down Lilly, who was trying to decide her next move. Lilly by far had the more experience. If this fight went on for too long, Mitch would end up dead. Mitch just wanted to hold her back as long as he could so Minnie or Clementine could get there and shoot her.
"You could still walk away from this kid!" Lilly said, hoping to dissuade him. "You walk away, I'll walk away. I don't have to kill you here."
"Fuck that," Mitch said defiantly, "After all the shit you've done? After you fucking killed Ruby? Fuck you. If you wanna get past me, you'll have to kill me, cause I don't fucking care anymore!" Mitch yelled back, readying his spear.
"Stupid . . . fucking kid," Lilly cursed as she shook her head, positioning herself for another strike. "You asked for this."
Mitch braced himself for a possible counter attack as Lilly charged, raising her knife.
Lilly never made it to him. A shotgun blast rang out nearby, spraying buckshot in Lilly's direction. Lilly screamed as the pellets mangled her hand, dropping her knife to the ground as she backed off. Mitch snapped to where the shot had come from to see Minnie with her shotgun raised, and Clementine standing just nearby.
"Little motherfucker!" Lilly yelled as stared at her bleeding, now disfigured hand.
Mitch took advantage of the opening. He wanted to make sure Lilly didn't away. He fought through the pain of his wound, attacking Lilly with another spear thrust. With no weapon to defend herself and too distracted by her hand, Lilly was unable to stop Mitch from plunging the spear into her leg, right through her knee. Lilly let out the loudest cry yet as she collapsed to the ground, writhing in pain, now crippled. Minnie and Clementine rushed over to Mitch, relieved to see he was still alive.
"Please tell me you're okay," Minnie said with concerned eyes, her caring nature managing to show through.
"Yeah, I'll be fine," Mitch assured her, then looking to Lilly, who had now had injuries all over her body. "She won't."
Minnie shifted her gaze to Lilly now, her hateful glare returning. For the first time, Lilly looked like she realized she wasn't going to make it out of this. That she was going to die. She looked afraid.
"No, she won't," Minnie said, raising Abel's shotgun towards her. "This is what you deserve."
Minnie was going to kill her, and Mitch was going to let her. She was going to make Lilly suffer the way she suffered. Clementine had a decision to make, and she had to make it fast.
Clementine quickly determined she couldn't let Minnie do this. Not in the state she was in. She was already on the brink of losing her mind, as well as losing sight of who she was. If she did this, Clementine knew that the old Minnie might disappear forever. She couldn't let that happen. Not when she was only just getting better.
"Stop!" Clementine said to Minnie, lowering her arm for her. "Minnie, you can't do this."
Minerva looked to Clementine with a confused stare. "What?"
"Of course she can. Shoot her Minnie," Mitch said.
"Clementine, I thought you were on board with this," Minnie said, now looking quite irritated.
"You're right, she does have to die, but not like this. It shouldn't be you."
"What?" Minerva asked, now looking almost offended. "Well then who should it be? You?"
Clementine breathed in, "Yes, I should do it."
Minerva looked mad, enraged even. "I don't care how long you've known her, she's taken more from me than she ever took from you!"
"I know, Minnie, I know. You deserve it more. But you shouldn't me doing this to yourself, you're already so fucked up Minnie."
Well they were arguing, Mitch picked the knife up the ground so Lilly wouldn't get any ideas. Lilly couldn't go anywhere, and she sure as hell couldn't fight anymore. All she could do was watch in desperate despair as they figured out what to do with her. Either way, this was the end of the road. It was just a matter of how much pain she would suffer before she went out.
"You think I can't handle it? You think you can?" Minerva advanced, growing more aggressive.
"Minnie, I've seen people like you before, okay?" Clementine tried to explain, thinking back to Kenny. "They're good people, but they're fucked up. You're on the verge of that. You're on the verge of breaking. I look at you and I can see it, I've seen it before!"
"This isn't your call," Mitch said, crossing his arms. "Just let her do it."
"No, she can't! She can't do this to herself!"
Minerva looked conflicted.
"Minnie, I've been in a situation like this before. This guy named Kenny, he —."
"Kenny," Lilly suddenly said through her pants, looking to Clementine. "How is Kenny?"
"Fuck you," Clementine said, clenching her fists. "You don't say shit about Kenny." She turned back to Minerva now.
"If you speak again, I'm blowing your foot off," Minerva made clear.
"Kenny was a good guy," Clementine continued. "But he started to lose himself. He did the same thing you're about to do, and I watched him do it. He was never the same after that. I still loved him, but he was never the same! After that it, it just got worse for him! I don't to watch that again. I don't want that to be you. Let me do this for you. I can deal with it. You? Right now? I don't think you can. I know this is really personal to you, and at the end of the day, it's your call, but I'm asking you not to do this. Please," Clementine pleaded, hoping Minnie would see things her way.
Minnie bit her lip, and Clementine could tell tears were coming on. "But, but she killed Ruby! My sister is dead! Because of her! She took me from my home! She took everything from me!"
"No, she didn't. Not everything," Clementine argued, realizing she was getting somewhere. "You still have us, you still have Tenn. Think about Tenn, Minnie. You think he'd want you to do this?"
Minnie seemed to recoil at the mention of her brother, now looking even more uncertain.
"You think he would want you to be this? I don't know you very well, Minnie, but I know this isn't you. Just let me end it, I'll make it fast."
Minnie brought her hand to her face, trying to contain her oncoming sobs. "Damn it," she said, not knowing what to do.
Minnie looked over to Lilly, staring back at her with desperate, fearful eyes. She looked pathetic. Humiliated. A woman defeated. Maybe, that was enough. Minnie looked to Clementine, who was waiting anxiously for a reply.
"Just finish it," Minnie said, turning away.
She walked over to stand next to Mitch. If she wasn't going to do it herself, she was definitely going to watch.
Clementine breathed a sigh of relief, and turn to face Lilly herself, rifle in hand. Lilly laughed nervously, shaking her head.
"After all this shit, it's you. Fucking Clementine. Lee's little girl. What the fuck."
"Shut up, Lilly. Don't say his name," Clementine demanded, raising her rifle.
This wouldn't be easy, but it was something that needed to be done. For everyone.
"Or what? You gonna let your little friend hack me apart like she did Abel? Or leave me here to die like Kenny and Lee? I'm dead anyway, I'll never make it out of the woods like this," Lilly admitted, knowing that whatever way this went, she wasn't leaving there alive.
"No," Clementine said, standing firm. "This ends right here, with me and you. Do you have anything you wanna say?"
Lilly still couldn't believe this was happening. Here she was again, alone. In the woods. Only this time she wouldn't be making it out. She couldn't help but think back on that night.
"Come on, get in! We're leaving this crazy bitch!"
"She couldn't be trusted Lee, I swear. Please."
"You're not coming with us."
"I'll die out here!"
"I don't care."
Just like then, she had done this to herself. She had a chance to get past it and become stronger, but instead she withered and weakened. She wasn't strong enough. She always knew it.
She looked up to Clementine, who was waiting for her last words.
"Are any of them still alive?" Lilly asked Clementine, wanting to know before she died.
Clementine knew right away what she meant. She wasn't sure if Lilly deserved to know.
"Kenny, maybe. He was when I last saw him. That was a long time ago, though."
"Of course it would be fucking Kenny," Lilly said, a clear disdain still present in her voice. "Son of a bitch."
Clementine noticeably grimaced as she insulted Kenny. He may have killed Lilly's father, but she had forsaken any sympathy for that act long ago. That was a lifetime and countless sins ago.
"You know Lilly, I remember your dad. He was an asshole, but he'd be ashamed to see what you've turned into. Look at you. You're a mess."
Lilly just glared at Clementine in silence, the words visibly stinging her. However, she made no argument.
"You're just like him," she spat as she sat up as best she could.
"Who?"
"You know who I mean," Lilly said back. "What my dad would've thought doesn't fucking matter. He's dead. Now I'm gonna die, and soon you're gonna die. And everyone you know's gonna die. Again. And nothing's fucking changed. And that's just the way it is."
Clementine's glare just intensified, but she held back her anger as best she could. She couldn't let herself lose her temper. Not after everything she had just said to Minnie.
"Anything else?" Clementine asked, seething.
Lilly shook her head. She was ready for this to end. "Just do what you're gonna do."
Clementine inhaled, trying in vain to calm her nerves. As much as Lilly had this coming, nothing about this was easy. Lilly used to be her friend. Lilly had once protected her with Kenny and Lee. Now she was an enemy. Now she had to die. Lilly didn't close her eyes. She looked right at Clementine. She'd rather see it coming. She had accepted it. This was harder than Clementine thought. Minnie couldn't wait any longer.
"Do it!"
Clementine fired almost on accident, Minnie's sudden shout startling her. Lilly's head jerked back, a bullet hole in her temple. She slumped on her side, her eyes still open, blood leaking out from the fatal wound, staining the ground red. Clementine just stared at her, unable to look away from the act she had just committed. To say Clementine looked conflicted wouldn't be saying enough. She didn't know how to feel, if she was being honest. She thought this would be different. She thought this would feel different. She had chosen to bear the weight of Lilly's execution, freeing Minnie from any further self-destruction. She hoped it would be worth it.
"That's a better death than that evil cunt deserved," Mitch said, looking disappointed. "But she's fucking dead, so that's pretty good."
Clementine turned, looking to Minnie. She was trying to calm herself down, but was having little success. She just kept staring at Lilly's corpse. Wanting more. She held it back.
"Minnie?" Clementine asked for her thoughts.
Minnie stared at Lilly for a few more seconds, before eventually looking up to Clementine with a satisfied nod.
"She's dead. It's done. It's over. Let's go." Minnie said as she broke away, heading in the direction of the fishing shack. "We're not done yet. We still have to get Ruby."
Mitch took Lilly's gun from the grass and followed after her. Minnie was right. There was still more to do. They had to get Ruby, and break the news to everyone. That would be awful. They had another funeral to look forward to.
Ruby's funeral.
The bright side was they had given more than they got. Abel and Lilly were dead, and Clementine doubted the raiders would come looking for them after this, if they even managed to stay together at all now that Lilly was dead. Clementine glanced at Lilly one last time, before forcing herself away from the scene. She couldn't look any longer. She went after Mitch and Minnie, leaving Lilly to lie alone.