Reasons for Living Chapter 18: Slow Recovery

Luke:

Well... Just get this over with Luke

Luke was standing in front of the door to the backhoe with Carlos just beside him. Andy was asleep (probably), but he looked pale. The early morning light didn't help him make out any details about Andy's sleeping figure. His machete was in his hand. He raised it up, and smacked the side of the door with the back of the blade.

Andy woke with a start, startling Luke as he fell back down the stairs leading up to the door. "Sorry for scaring ya like that." He said as he opened the door to the vehicle and walked down the stairs. As soon as he was on solid gound, Carlos placed his head on his forehead. Luke could see a small amount of sweat dripping down his face as he got up from the ground.

"You feel warm... but not as much as you should be by now if it didn't work." Carlos said. "How do you feel?"

"Well, I've felt better. On the other hand, I actually have felt worse. I think it worked doc." He said with a smile, followed by a yawn, causing him to cover his mouth with his bandaged right hand.

"It's too soon to tell. " Carlos said. "But I think you're right. We can't stop moving today, for all we know they could be right behind us. You can walk, right?"

"If we take it slow, yeah."

I don't know how much slower we can take it. Luke thought. They should have reached the mountains yesterday. The barrage of gunfire from yesterday couldn't have helped them get away from their enemies. "I'll go let everyone know we gotta move." Luke said as he walked back towards the building.

We have to get into the mountain range today. He thought to himself. Just before he reached the door, Clementine walked out.

"Good Morning Clem." Luke forced himself to brighten up for her sake. Just because he was pessimistic doesn't mean everyone else should be. "It looks like Andy's gonna make it."

"Well... that's good." She said with a smile that looked incredibly forced. What in the hell was that about? He wondered as he stood in front of the door. He turned around to look for Clem, but she was already gone somewhere. Im probably just imagining it. He dismissed the thought as he walked inside and relayed the news to everyone else.

Clementine:

"Can we stop for a bit?" Andy said. Clementine turned around and saw he was sweating, in spite of the cold weather. This was the fourth time he had asked. The group had agreed all three times before, and nobody had objected. That pattern didn't change as everybody sat down, the fading sunlight resting on their faces. Clementine slouched down against the side of a tree, stump, and dropped her backpack on the ground.

He saved my life. That thought had been running through Clementine's head over and over through the whole day. She still wasn't sure how she felt about Andrew's current condition. I guess he's earned a second chance. Lee had killed someone, for a better reason than most had, but not a good one. That was still more then Andrew had ever had. I had better just get used to him being here. I can't tell the group. It's like he said, they would never believe me.

"Hey Clem?" Luke called over to her. " You still got those binoculars?"

"The ones you threw at my face? Yeah." She still had a small bruise on her forehead from that incident a few days ago."

"Yeah... those ones. Anyways, mind takin' a lookout? Maybe you can see if their are any buildings nearby."

"Got it." Clementine said as she pulled the binoculars out of her backpack. She climbed up on to the boulder on the other side of the camp, and as able to see the bridge.

"I can see the bridge you were talking about."

"Wait, really?" Luke asked with some surprise in his voice. "I coulda sworn it was a bit farther off..."

"Does it look passable?" Carlos asked.

"I think so. It's hard to tell from here."

"Do you see anything else?" Carlos asked.

"There's a little house right on the other side of the lake."

"How big is it."

"Its..." Clementine grinned as an idea came to her. "Its enormous Carlos. The little house by the bridge is huge." She heard Luke chuckling behind her, followed by as small growl from Carlos. Clementine continued to search the mountains and spotted a ski lift. "There's some sort of lift on the mountainside."

"If it's near the bridge, it's probably the ski resort." Luke said.

"I never got a chance to go skiing before everything happened."

"Bec and I went once." Alvin said.

"You call what we did skiing? All we did was fall down a slope and make fools of ourselves." Rebecca said.

"If that's the ski lift, then that building next to it might be a ski resort. It's huge."

"Maybe we could spend the night there." Clementine could tell that Luke was forming up a plan. She jumped off the boulder and turned back towards the group.

"We've got to cross that bridge. Come on, lets go." She saw Carlos pick up his pack.

"Hold on a minute. Carlos, I need to talk to you. Clem, you come too." Clem walked over to where the two older men were meeting.

"We can't all go run across the bridge. If we get spotted out their, were fucked."

"We don't have the time to go around that lake."

"Yeah, I know. I'll just sneak across with Clem, make sure it's clear, then we'll single you guys. signal that it's okay for you guys to run on over."

"You want to split up the group? The last time we did that, Andrew got bitten. And you want to bring Clementine she's just a girl Luke." Clementine remembered how she, Andrew, and Nick had gone to check out the dear, and then the horde of lurkers came.

"Yeah, well look at our group now." Luke replied "Alvin's got to look out for Rebecca, and you can't get the man five feet away from her before he starts worrying. In his position, I'd probably be more nervous than he is. Rebecca is pregnant, Nick's a wreck, Andrew might be dead in less than a day, and you know why you've got to look out for Sarah."

Clementine could tell that had struck a cord with Carlos. "Fine. But she comes back here after any sign of trouble, okay?"

"I can handle it." She might not be able to pull as much weight as everyone else, but she was still useful.

"Remember how she stitched up her own arm? We're gonna be fine." Luke turned to face her. "Get your hammer kid. We're heading out."

Clementine saw Nick get up. "Luke I heard you back their, if anything happens out there I'll cover you."

"Uh... Good. Thanks." Luke replied. Clementine grabbed her hammer and followed him out of the camp.