She spent the rest of that morning hunched over the ledge of the rocks, silent tears falling as she saw the walkers slowly rip Kenny apart. It was horrifying, and she prayed to whoever was left to listen to her that Lee hadn't befallen the same fate.

Well, that was it then. The last of her original group, gone. Scattered to the winds, never to be heard from again (though she never knew what happened to Molly and Vernon). The worst part wasn't actually the fact that they were gone. After all, she would always have her memories of them, and she kept some of those very close to her heart. All the times Lee had comforted her and given her hope, even when she believed that she never deserved it, and spending time with Ben and Duck and Katjaa and Chuck… the list went on. She'd been accepted among this group of strangers without question, and she'd be forever grateful. But the worst part of all this was that if something happened to her (and with her luck, it was bound to happen eventually), then all those connections would be lost. Nobody would be alive to keep their memories alive.

Clementine didn't know why she continued to watch Kenny getting eaten, and she didn't even budge when Daryl had put a hand on her shoulder. She needed some time alone to gather the last sliver of strength and hope that she had left.

Noticing this reaction, Daryl walked over to talk to Glenn, who (along with Nick, Pete and Luke) had seen Kenny falling to his death.

"Where've you been the past couple of weeks?" Daryl asked with a slight smirk, but quickly it disappeared as Glenn was in no mood for jokes right now.

"He had a gun on Clementine, and murdered that lady you was with earlier."

"You sure about that?" Glenn interrupted, giving him a sharp look. "'Cause right now it looks like you sent an arrow straight Kenny's chest! Or were we just seeing things?"

Sure enough, the rest of them were all giving him questioning looks, although Luke was looking pretty hesitant and Pete almost seemed relieved that Kenny was gone. Almost.

"After all the shit we've been through, you're gonna turn on me now?" Daryl asked directly at Glenn.

The boy looked slightly downcast, and he couldn't really look Daryl straight in the eye. It was almost like he was trying to justify everything to himself; to make him believe that Daryl killed him for a good reason.

Daryl huffed in annoyance and kicked the table, making the rest of them flinch a little. "Fine! If you think I'm lying, then it's your asses! I'm sick of looking out for people who wouldn't do the same for me."

He glanced over at Clementine, who still had her back towards everyone else. A part of him wanted to just go over there, tell her to take care, and leave. But Daryl Dixon didn't come all the way here, travelling so many miles just to throw all that out the window. Instead, he presented a choice.

"If any of you want to come with me, then fine. But I ain't taking anybody who isn't looking out for the group. I don't need any more of this shit."

He gestured over to Rebecca, who was slowly coming back to life. Daryl made sure that didn't happen though, as he drew his knife and drove it into the back of her undead head, putting her down in an instant.

"Who's with me?"

Glenn hesitated for a moment, but slowly made his way over to Daryl's side, looking hesitantly at the remaining three men.

Luke glanced at Pete and gave him a light smack on the arm, gesturing with his head towards Daryl.

"Did you actually believe Kenny when he said that he tried to save Daryl back at the cabin? And besides, you saw how he shot Carlos and Sarah. Obviously he did the same thing to Rebecca," Luke encouraged.

Pete sighed, looked over at Nick, who was surprisingly nodding his head as well, and made his way over along with the other three.

There was still the matter of Clementine to resolve.

"Clem?" Daryl called, trying to get her attention, "you coming bud, or what?"

Nothing. No movement from her whatsoever.

"What are we gonna do?" Pete asked anxiously.

"Well we can't just leave her here! She'll end up just like Kenny out in these woods," Glenn added solemnly.

Luke made a move to go talk to her, but Daryl put a hand on his shoulder. "Lemme go do this, man. It'll only take a minute."

Looking kind of offended at first, but relenting a bit later, Luke agreed. Daryl made his way over to Clementine and placed himself on the rock next to her.

"You're killing yourself doing this you know."

"What does it matter, anyway?" Clementine asked, so quietly that Daryl barely understood her.

Shrugging his shoulders, Daryl glanced down at the ghastly scene below him.

"You know, the guy may have been a straight up dickhead leading up to this, but he did have a point."

"What's that?"

"That I'm not fit to look out for you."

That got Clementine's attention. She gave him a confused and questioning look, and once again Daryl shrugged his shoulders.

"You don't need someone looking over your shoulder all the time, Clem," he reasoned.

Clementine shook her head. "But you saved my life lots of times! Besides, I'm only eleven!"

"What does that matter out here?"

She stopped what she was about to say next. Daryl made a valid argument – age really didn't matter in the apocalypse. She remembered what Chuck said, that it didn't matter if you were smart, stupid, strong, weak… if you weren't careful, you were gonna end up dead.

"You've been through more shit than most, kiddo. And you came out with all your limbs, so that's a pretty good sign too. Heck, my brother didn't even make it this long, and he was one of the toughest sons of bitches I've ever met…"

"Swear."

Under different circumstances, Daryl probably would've laughed at that. He hadn't heard Clementine say that in such a long time – too long, in fact.

"We sure could use your company here, Clem."

Clementine took one last look down below, and almost puked at the horrific sight. This wasn't what the Kenny she knew would've wanted, not for anybody.

"He deserved better," Clementine stated, her words muffled into her sleeve as she wiped away the few stray tears that had managed to fall. Daryl patted her back, turned on his heel and went to join the rest of the group.

Pulling out a scrap of paper from her backpack, Clementine flattened it out and placed it right near the edge of the rocks, holding it in place with a large stone she found nearby. She stared at the paper intently for a few seconds, and then followed Daryl back.

The wind bucked and bent, but the picture of Kenny and his family wouldn't move.

And that was all it took for them to set off. Daryl had found another van for them to use on the way over here, but he had to hope that it was still there in one piece.

Thankfully it was, and the keys were actually in one of the compartments. Everyone piled in silently, that is until Clementine asked something uneasily.

"So, I guess this means I'm not driving this time?"

Everyone looked at her with a look that said, "Really?", so she shrugged bashfully and looked out the window as Daryl revved the engine.

Their group was getting smaller and smaller every day. Nick and Pete were particularly on edge, but Luke seemed surprisingly calm about everything. He sort of reminded Clementine of Lee – someone who could get things done and look after his people. He even had the same temper that Lee would show every once and a while.

Of course, none of that mattered to her anymore. Like Daryl said, she didn't need somebody constantly looking after her in case of danger. Sure, it was nice to have some people to back you up, but if something ever happened to any of them, Clementine would be able to adapt.

So why did she feel so crappy about what Daryl said?

"So where are we headed anyway?" Pete asked, eyeing the road signs as they came up.

"With a little luck, we'll be near Washington by the end of the day. As long as we don't run out of gas or anything, we should be good," Daryl then motioned for Pete to open one of the compartments, "You're gonna be my eyes, alright? I sort of know where we're going, but I need your help. So, we're on Concession Road right now and…"

Clementine tuned them out, closing her eyes. She'd had a pretty rough morning and she didn't feel like listening to anybody at the moment. It seemed like every time she did listen to a conversation these days it was somebody arguing with the other person. She just still couldn't believe Kenny was gone.

Gone. Gooooonnnnneeee. It sounded weird to Clementine, weird and bad. Before all of this had happened, she couldn't have possibly imagined that everyone she ever cared about would be either dead or wished they were dead. That being said, she probably never would've met any of these people (besides her parents of course) if the apocalypse hadn't happened, so it was a win-lose kind of situation.

Clementine slept for the rest of the trip, with Luke and Glenn smiling on occasion as they heard her murmur some unintelligible things in her slumber. Daryl just kept on driving the entire day – only stopping if someone had to use the washroom (the forest). He was determined to get them to Washington no matter what.

"How'd you find us anyway?" Nick asked from the seat behind him, casting him a curious stare in the rear-view mirror.

Daryl broke off onto the highway before answering, whistling in awe at how many cars were deserted and just sitting in the middle of the road.

"I tracked your footprints, plus you guys left a ton of shit lying around. Beer bottles, mostly."

Pete laughed a little at that. Nick had been known to get drunk on occasion.

"I saw your tent pitched up and was gonna go beat the shit out of Kenny, but I heard Rebecca yelling at him for leaving the group behind," he explained, casting a glance over at Glenn.

"By the time I got there, he had already killed Rebecca and had Clem at gunpoint. We tried to talk him out of it, but he kept saying that one of us had to die. He missed the shot at me, so I fired and… well, you know the rest."

Nobody said a word for a few seconds, just looking out their prospective windows and avoiding any eye contact with Daryl.

"Well, shit," Nick said dryly.

This time, after a few seconds of silence, everyone just burst out laughing.

Later…

"Clem? Come on, wake up."

"Mrfff…no… five more minutes…. Zzz…"

"Well, would you rather stay in the van while the walkers come out? Come on Clem, we're here."

Clementine groggily opened her eyes and stretched her arms to the sky, getting any kinks out of her back. She reckoned that they'd been on the road for almost the entire day. But wait… where were they?

This place was unlike anything she'd ever seen before. Clementine had never been to a big city before, so she wasn't used to the sheer enormity of the buildings. To anyone else they may have seemed like just regular office buildings, but not to her. Those were down the street though, so the group wasn't completely covered with walkers just yet. Right next to them was a series of urban homes – not even close to the scale of the office buildings.

"You ever seen the White House, Clem?" Luke asked, pointing to a distant, elegant-looking building that she instantly recognized.

"I guess that's where the president used to live," she reasoned, getting a nod from her companions. "It's too bad we can't live there now instead."

"Why exactly are we here anyway, Daryl?" Glenn asked his friend, "This place is gonna be worse than Atlanta was! And there's no way I'm going through that again!"

"If that does happen," Daryl started, motioning for everyone to follow him, "don't handcuff me to a roof or anything."

Clementine wanted to ask what he meant, but Glenn seemed to look a little regretful, so she let it go.

The five of them followed Daryl's lead, sneaking behind cars when there was any danger to be had. He had instructed them not to try and kill any of them unless they absolutely had to (which was pretty difficult for Nick to do), and to make as little noise as possible.

"You still haven't told us why we're here," Nick whispered in a harsh tone. "How is a city full of walkers better than out in the woods?"

"If you'd shut up and follow me, I'll tell you."

Silently, the group of survivors made their way to a massive, rugged-looking fort with guards patrolling the perimeter with machine guns. It sounded as though there was a lot of activity going on inside, and the place itself looked pretty defendable.

"Let's go ring the doorbell, shall we?" Daryl mused, starting to walk out from behind the bushes but quickly getting yanked back by Glenn.

"Are you friggin' serious, man?! How do we know if this isn't just another Woodbury we've stumbled into?"

"We don't," Daryl stated matter of factly, "but would you rather keep on living out here? There was a sign back out along the railroad tracks that said this place was safe. Terminus, I think they called it."

"Great. Just perfect, Daryl. This doesn't scream deathtrap at all," Glenn replied, sarcasm dripping in buckets from his tone.

"Is this place safe?" Clementine asked shyly, reminding Daryl of what she was like when he first met her.

Daryl bent down to her level and explained, "Not sure, but we've gotta try. Some of the others might be in there, and even if they aren't, it's worth a shot askin'. You with me?"

He held out his hand in a fist, and Clementine pumped it with a slight laugh.

"What about the rest of y'all? You comin' or what?"

"It's not like you've given us much choice anyway," Nick grumbled, earning a friendly punch from Pete.

"We'll go with you. But if shit hits the fan, we're leavin'. Ain't no sense in sticking around if they aren't the friendly sort," Luke spoke up, and reluctantly Glenn agreed.

Nodding his head, Daryl casually strolled up towards the front gate, and as he expected, had a gun pointed straight at his face by one of the guards.

"Stop! Who are you? What do you want?" the guard asked defensively.

"Easy, bro. My friends and I are lookin' for a safe place to crash for a little while. Wanna let us in?" Daryl replied coolly.

The guard glared at Daryl, his stone-cold face scrunching up in distrust. "How do we know this isn't just some ambush? You seem dangerous to me!"

"We all do," Luke answered, stepping up. "You have to in order to survive out here. But that don't mean we turn on each other! Just let us in – we've been on the road for weeks now, and we can help you guys out if you need some!"

The guard looked hesitant, but then he gave a big sigh and ordered one of the other men to open the gate.

"I'm warning you though – you folks try anything, and you're all dead. ALL of you."

The giant doors swung open with a really rickety sound – metal scraping upon metal as the last lock was undone.

"Well, this is it," Daryl mused, turning towards Clementine again. "You ready?"

The girl was about to answer, but her eyes suddenly opened wide and her jaw was slightly ajar. Glenn was absolutely sprinting through the gates, and now he knew why.

Maggie wrapped her arms around Glenn's neck and buried her face into his shirt, squezzing him for dear life.

He was about to approach, but a voice suddenly called out to him from seemingly out of nowhere.

"Miss me, Daryl?"