Something to Fight For

by Last Of The Walking Dead

After escaping a group of bandits, Lee and Clementine venture deeper into the city of Pittsburgh. When two strangers show up, they realize they aren't the only ones trying to escape the city. A temporary alliance was forged, but circumstance and secrets force the four into a journey across the country together, to find the Fireflies, and ultimately, the cure that'll save humanity.

21. Alone

2:36 PM - October 30, 2025 - Store inside abandoned mall

Dot [Ellie]

Ellie's arms felt like jelly. Her nose frozen solid, and her breathing was in rampant, irregular rhythms. Snow was already piling around them as she and Clementine dragged Joel through the streets away from the University of Eastern Colorado. By the time the mall had come into view, the snow was deep enough to force them to take breaks, using their horses to drag him the rest of the way.

Once inside, Ellie tore the first store they came across apart, drawer by drawer, cursing after each one. Clementine was nearby, watching over Joel, the tension in the air thicker than blood as Joel's fate hung in the balance. When the final drawer gifted her a roll of duct tape, she let out a sigh of relief. "Oh, here we go…!"

She rushed back towards Joel, dropping to her knees as she exchanged a passing glance towards Clementine. "Okay, I'm gonna put you on your side…!" She directed the statement towards Joel, waving over Clementine. "C'mon!"

Together, they managed to get him onto his side, and Ellie pulled up his shirt, cringing at the sight of the wound left behind by the rebar. "Jesus…" she breathed, cursing underneath her breath as she reached into her backpack, pulling the old red shirt she used to wear, covering the wound with it. Her fingers were stained just as red, the blood from Joel's wound continuing to ooze out slowly. Hopefully, this would stop that. For now.

"Alright, hold it in place," she told Clem, the sound of tape peeling echoing in the store as she pulled it, ripping it off with her teeth. The taste was rancid, but it hardly mattered right now. After she'd laid down three rows of the tape, she finally tried to calm her breathing, a soft "okay…" escaping her lips as she lowered Joel's jacket and helped Clementine roll him back onto his back. Joel grunted. She looked towards Clementine then, a mixture of relief and gratitude etched across her face. "That should buy us some time. We'll need to find something to stitch him up."

He wasn't going to die. He wasn't.

Art [Clementine]

While Ellie searched, tore her way through each store, Clementine could only look over the shop windows in a state of contemplation, watching as her sunken eyes were reflected right back at her. Dirt covered every inch of her face, complementing the empty, hollow stare she gave off.

This. Trying to keep Joel from turning into another one in that endless list. Clem figured it was the only reason she was still functioning.

They eventually settled on an empty store enclosed by this large shutter. It was warmer inside, at least, if only by just a little. Dark and crummy. It was the best they could find, so it'd have to do.

When it came to things like this, there was always a worse part. Seeing the wound oozing with blood, patching it up, doing the stitches... having to watch the person scream out in pain. There wasn't one, that time. Just one chunk of bad all blended together, nothing but more suffering waiting on the other side. Clementine did nothing but follow whatever Ellie asked her to, unresponsive to her very core. Not even the sight of Joel's insides threatening to come out could make the girl flinch. It was hard to really... react to anything, at that point, negatively or otherwise. Even Joel looked like less of a corpse.

He wasn't going to make it through the night. They probably had a few hours tops, actually. Ellie must've known. It was all over her face that she did. "Ellie, I..." There was nothing to say. Nothing she could've said to make it better. Nothing Clementine wanted to say, despite the circumstances. Anything that didn't get straight to the point was just wasting the brief window of time they had.

"We could look for a drugstore? There's gotta be one, somewhere..." Of course, with Lee casting his shadow over every corner of her mind, it was bound to be a thought she'd run into face-first.

Hard not to, when he died because of her.

Dot [Ellie]

She locked her gaze on Clementine as the girl spoke, suggesting that they find a pharmacy. Ellie breathed in and out, nodding her head in a quick jerk due to the adrenaline pumping through her veins. She pushed herself to her feet, looking towards their two horses standing in the far corner of the empty store.

"Callus, Whiskers, keep an eye on him."

Another look towards Clementine, though this one lingered. Through all the panic she was wading through, she knew that Clementine must've been going through something… a hundred times worse. Because of her. A small part of her wanted to believe that Lee was still out there, alive, but she found herself unable to.

What was she supposed to do? Let Joel die? How could she make a choice like that? Choosing between two evils?

She hated herself for it.

Sighing, she stepped past the girl, heading for the metal gate they'd closed when they arrived, lifting it slowly before holding it high enough for her and Clementine to fit through.

Once the baseball-capped girl ducked under, she directed her eyes towards Joel. Her words were quick, and she lowered the gate soon after. "We'll be back in a flash…!"

The atrium that surrounded them was bitter cold, snow piling underneath a broken window dozens of feet above them. Ellie adjusted the bow that was wrapped over her shoulder merely to have something to do with her hands that wasn't just wringing them together nervously.

They began to explore the mall together, heading upstairs and into a narrower corridor of clothes shops and toy stores. Besides the howl of the wind, silence filled the air.

She wanted to break the silence, to say something, but what could she say that would make up for the fact that Lee was most likely dead? Not a single fucking thing. Nothing that could possibly come to mind would be good enough. Clementine deserved better, and Ellie simply couldn't… give her that.

So the silence stayed, at least for now. She hated every second of it, but tried to focus herself on the task at hand. They still had to save Joel.

Art [Clementine]

The snow made every corner look identical, every old store look like the same abandoned wreck. Had it not been for Ellie leading the way, Clem could've easily seen herself getting lost between all those loud advertisements and rows of white tiles brimming with overgrowth. Signs written in large letters, price tags... nothing but fancy stuff trying to sell them on more fancy stuff that didn't exist anymore.

And not a single fucking pharmacy in sight.

She didn't know, couldn't even tell what and how to feel anymore. Angry? At Ellie, for leaving him behind? At Joel, for not being around to help? It was all bullshit. The only person she hated after what happened was herself.

Now there she was, stumbling around more aimlessly than a clicker in the dark, trying so desperately to hold onto something that'd keep her from giving up completely. A moving husk. Clementine couldn't lift something like her rifle even if she tried, having left it behind with Joel and the horses. She was as good as deadweight, looking for someone else to sink with her. Ellie would've been better off if she just rolled over and died already. At least that way she wouldn't be there to get her killed, too.

Those soft snowflakes fell upon the tip of her baseball cap, melting into drops of water, joining the puddles forming on the ground, running down her arms and making her hands shiver. It wasn't supposed to be that cold inside a place like that, was it? God, she was freezing. Every single gust of wind would sneak through the holes in her jacket, snow piling up inside every tatter.

Focus...!

A lot of places did catch her eye, even with all of'em looking so strange and samey. Hell, the fact that they did played a big part in it, actually. There was one called... Something, something's 'Garage.' Hard as hell to make out the words with all that muck on top of them. Clem couldn't be bothered. It looked like a clothing store, though that's about all she could tell. They ended up crossing through it, using it as a shortcut, keeping a close eye out for any maps, or anything of the sort. The idea came to mind pretty fast, all things considered. Between all the things that could kill them before the sun went down, at least the cold didn't have to be one of them. Reaching for the piles on top of piles of leftover duds, Clementine snagged two pieces of clothing rather haphazardly, only concerning herself with whether or not they could fit in them. A green-tinted coat and a light-blue biker jacket, one for Ellie and one for her. It might've been bearable right now, but they were gonna need something heavy to make it through winter. If they did. "Here," she said as a heads up, tossing one to her friend before silently moving on, not another word spoken.

She watched as Ellie grabbed herself a pair of boots, stashing her sneakers away in her backpack. She guessed that it was better than slipping around everywhere.

Once past the store, on the other side of the mall, things started looking up, if only marginally. 'Weston's Pharmacy,' it read. Their only possible shot at saving Joel, at that point. "See it? Looks doable."

Dot [Ellie]

Weston's Pharmacy. A sense of relief began to wash over Ellie as Clementine pointed out the store down the hallway. "Sounds promising," she muttered, rushing towards the store.

The metal gate was lifted just high enough for them to be able to crawl through, kept in place by overturned shelves positioned underneath it. Ellie ducked through, squinting her eyes to adjust to the sudden darkness before flicking on her flashlight.

They searched through the store for a while, finding nothing of note. Empty pill bottles, useless junk; nothing they could use. That, however, came to an end as Ellie's flashlight crossed over a sign next to a blue door behind the register counter.

PHARMACY EMPLOYEES ONLY

She tried the door, the handle clicking useless. "Ah, come on," she hissed, cursing under her breath as she stood on her toes to look through the glass window in the door. A white and red box caught her sight, left on the ground in the cluttered room. "First aid kit…" She turned back towards Clementine, her brows knitted into a look of impatience and frustration. How the fuck do we get inside? "Any ideas?" There's gotta be a key around here somewhere, right?

Art [Clementine]

Nothing was ever easy. They searched that place from top to bottom, and even despite the dark having made looking for medicine way more challenging that it should've for Clem, it didn't take a flashlight to tell that they were boned. Figures. The girl's mind immediately tried to come up with what they were going to do next, crossing ideas off from an imaginary bullet list. Worst case scenario... they could try searching outside the mall? Clementine could feel the urge to smash her fist against the counter boiling up like water mounted over a stove. "Fuck!"

Ellie, though, she did find something. Just what they were looking for locked behind a door, because of course it was. The girl kept her cool, at least for now, spelling out the one idea she had by knocking on the glass. Sturdy, sure. Breakable sturdy?

Worth a shot.

Clem went down on one knee, extending her arms to boost Ellie up. "Make it quick, okay?"

Dot [Ellie]

Ellie's gaze bounced between Clementine and the the window, a frown etching its way across her face. It was narrow, probably too narrow, but what other choice did they have? Sighing, she quickly searched around her for something to break the window with, finding a pile of bricks in a corner near the other side of the store. She grabbed one, jogging back to where Clementine awaited her.

"Okay… cover your eyes," she told her friend, pulling back her hand to throw the brick as hard as she could at the window. The glass shattered instantly upon contact, the brick sailing through the gap before hitting the wall on the other side of the locked room. The sound echoed in the cramped space, and she inwardly winced. Hopefully this place was as clear as it first appeared to be.

She grabbed her knife to scrape the rest of the glass shards off of the frame, placing her foot in Clem's cupped hands to be lifted into the hole. Her hands and head squeezed through first, and she placed her hands against the other side of the door to leverage herself the rest of the way through.

That was… until she'd reached halfway through the window, her progress halted around the lower half of her stomach. She tried to push herself forward again, to no avail. The jacket she was wearing had only made things worse, it seemed, making her too large to fit through.

Fuck. Fuck, god, fucking…

"I'm - I'm stuck!" She called out to the girl on the other side, who seemed to still have a grip on her legs. There were a dozen things running through her mind, chief among them being panic and embarrassment.

Art [Clementine]

Clem closed her eyes just as Ellie asked, only getting to hear the outcome of what followed, as the window cracked into pieces above her. A good sign, for once. Making sure she had a solid grip on Ellie's shoe, the next part was meant to be simple. Lift her up, get her to the other side, grab the kit. Easy, right?

"You're stuck?!" Clementine asked, scared stiff, like she couldn't believe what she'd just heard. What do I do...? Clem reached her hands around Ellie's ankles in a rush, frowning, before that glower turned into a sneer. "S - Should I push or pull? Ellie?"

The other girl didn't get to answer.

Violent screeches engulfed the mall in loud echoes, reaching the pharmacy and reverberating through it as though they were powerful shockwaves, sending Clementine's head into haywire. No one alive could mistake those for anything else. They were fucked. "We gotta go. Ellie, fucking- Come on!" The girl bashed her shoulder against her, trying her hardest to get her through.

Dot [Ellie]

She could hear the croaking through the walls, a shiver running up her spine at the speed of light. She felt her legs fall as Clementine let her go, only for a sudden jolt of pain to force her to wince as Clem tried to force her through the window. She dropped her flashlight to the ground, watching as it rolled away before another forceful push against her finally managed to dislodge her.

"No, no no no no-!" Before she could react, her body fell forward, and she blocked her face with her arms before impact. Her body was met with the cold concrete, groaning as pain shot through her. "Uuugh…"

She slowly pushed herself to her knees, crawling to her flashlight before reaching over for the medkit. She clicked it open, her heart dropping as she took in the contents of the box.

Nothing.

"No…" She stood up, clenching her fists, resisting the urge to punch the nearest shelf out of frustration. Of course it would be empty. Of fucking course-! She kicked the box across the room, her attention then diverting to the only source of natural light in there. A broken window overlooking the balcony surrounding a courtyard below. More importantly, there was a helicopter crashed into the building, frozen in place where it landed on the second floor, almost teetering off the edge. Another red and white cross was marked on it.

They had to get there before the infected showed up.

She twisted around, heading towards the door she'd just came through, unlocking it before pulling it open. "Come on!" She hissed the command, grabbing Clem's hand before pulling her inside, locking the door behind her. At least that'd keep the infected from getting to them, if they made it into the pharmacy. She pointed towards the broken window, directing Clem's attention towards their next destination. "Military helicopter. It's gotta have something."

Art [Clementine]

Ellie sure took her sweet time in there, and the clickers just around the corner absolutely did not. Those things ran into the walls, flailing their arms while letting out ear-splitting roars, until they eventually came across the pharmacy they were bunking in, eager to gnaw on the flesh of any bystanders. Clementine's first instinct was to hide behind the counter, though that quickly proved to be insufficient. The girl's sporadic breathing combined with the sound of the broken glass underneath the sole of her boots... It was just a matter of time, really.

The first one leaned its head forward in beast-like fashion, letting its saliva dribble out of its fleshy, bleeding teeth, right above Clementine. She acted fast, against her better judgment. Stretching her arms around the cash register fallen on her side of the counter, Clem quickly got up to her feet and smashed the clicker's head with it, the cha-ching sound it sprung forth sounding a lot more bittersweet this time around. The infected recovered quickly, now charging at her with full-speed. It was a good thing Ellie was there when she did, pulling her out of harm's way and locking the door behind them.

"Shit, that was..." Close. Quite a bit more than she was comfortable with. The infected did their thing, smashing themselves against the door, but thankfully it wouldn't lead them anywhere. Not for the time being, anyway. When it came to her and Ellie, there wasn't a lot left for them besides unmitigated disappointment and another baseless chase they could risk their lives on.

Steady on they went to their next gamble: a crashed helicopter verging on plunging down into the chain stores below. Honestly, Clem wasn't liking this at all. Ellie was... She was way too important to keep dragging herself into close calls like that. With Joel out of commission, it was just her. Just a little girl to keep the freaking cure in check. The responsibility would've crushed her shoulders, had it not been symbolic. Still, they had to help the old guy. That wasn't even up for debate.

Not like she could stop her anyway. Best Clementine could do was make sure she didn't hurt herself trying.

They got there, eventually. The helicopter creaked, the snow having long since accumulated on top of it. There was only one way up there. One far from steady platform. Only a few glass panes away from a deadly fall. Clem could feel vertigo getting to her bad, and it had the girl staring at her friend apprehensively, crossing one of her arms. "You sure you wanna do this?"

Dot [Ellie]

The bone-chilling clicking continued to echo through the atrium, even at this distance. Ellie examined the glass 'platform' to the helicopter carefully, lips twisting in thought. It might hold their weight. Maybe one of them. There's no real way to know for sure, and she wasn't willing to risk both of their lives trying to get inside the helicopter only for one of them to fall through the glass.

But they still had to make it there. No matter what.

Eyes faltered, towards Clementine, and she took a step back, away from the platform. She scrunched her nose, mentally chewing on her decision. "Don't think it's gonna hold us both. I'm going across. Just… stay here. I might need help getting back."

Art [Clementine]

Clementine could feel her brows inching closer to one another as the suggestion was made, her expression spelling out concern, not one syllable she found herself agreeing with. Given the set of affairs, frankly, she couldn't give less of a shit about the Fireflies and their stupid fucking cure. If Ellie went there and... that scrap of metal couldn't take it, fell apart like a house of playing cards? The thought made her heart stop. Completely. No way was she losing someone else that day, especially her.

"Ellie, listen..." Clem chose to be cautious about it, even as inflexible as she felt regarding that whole thing. It'd be just... the dumbest thing ever to pretend her best fucking friend didn't feel the same way. They were gonna have to find some sort of middle ground. "At least let me go first, yeah?" The girl counter-proposed, nothing but sorrow in her voice, one tiny bit of pressure away from straight out begging Ellie not to go. "That way, I mean- If it goes to shit..." It hit her, of course, how scared out of her mind she was. How high up that helicopter was. It did so hard enough, that she had to swallow the rest of her words. "You get it."

For Ellie, though, she'd go anywhere in the freaking world.

Dot [Ellie]

She should've seen that coming.

Of course Clementine wanted to put herself in harm's way for her. Under normal circumstances, Ellie might've been moved by that, but… the fact she was the cure didn't matter right now. All that mattered was making sure Joel lived. Fuck everything else.

"No." Her voice was more stern than she'd intended it to be, her head shaking from side to side of its own accord. "If that thing falls, I'm not - I'm not losing you, too." She took a step back, towards the glass platform.

A part of her knew that she wasn't thinking logically about this. That, out of everyone in their group, she was the least expendable, but she didn't care. Either she got a medkit from that helicopter, or their chances at getting to the Fireflies would be fucked anyway.

Art [Clementine]

Why was she always like this? It was one thing to want to help Joel, but this was plain crazy. They didn't even know if there was anything in there! The girl tried to think of something to say, something that'd get Ellie to change her mind, but there really wasn't a something, no magical set of words that'd get her to give up. In fact, part of her - the loudest one - was pretty convinced she wasn't talking the redhead out of it. It made her frustrated to no end, the girl's eyes trailing to the floor.

They were both too scared to let each other go through with it, weren't they...?

Clementine sighed through her nose, something resembling a pout forming on her lips, her hands rested on her hips. For once in her life... Clem wasn't going to fight Ellie on it. It sure wasn't an easy thing to consent to, and she felt pretty dumb for doing it. Then again, knowing Ellie... she should be counting her blessings over the fact that her friend hadn't already jumped just to prove a point, or to keep her from doing it first.

She looked her in the eye, 'cause that's all she could do at that point. Clem forced a smile through all that worry, asking Ellie the bare-minimum before she went ahead with the stupidest plan they've ever had.

"Promise me you won't die?"

Dot [Ellie]

Ellie closed her eyes as Clem's question settled in her mind, clenching her right hand into a fist before relaxing it. They both knew that she couldn't promise that. In any situation. Nevertheless, she opened her eyes once more, letting her lips stretch into a genuine smile.

"I promise."

And she intended to keep it.

She turned towards the platform, taking each step towards it slowly before grabbing onto the ledge, pulling herself up and onto it. The glass crinkled underneath her feet, as if about to break at any moment. She let out a breath, a quiet "oh fuck" following suit. "Okay… be cool…" She took another step, then another, each one getting faster than the last as the glass made more and more noises.

She reached the other side after only a few seconds, eyes falling to the ground beneath her, way beneath her. She gulped down the fear, turning her body to walk along the metal rebar that extended towards the downed helicopter.

This was the hard part.

She gave herself a running start, leaping into the air. Her stomach dropped, and for an instant, the world around her became a blur, the ground quickly getting closer, before her feet found a solid surface. She fell to her hands and knees on the metal floor of the helicopter, breathing rampantly as adrenaline flooded her system. It was only exacerbated when the helicopter lurched to the side, colliding with an ornate pole that held up the roof over the second floor.

The crash echoed in her ears, leaving a ringing noise in its wake. She held onto a metal bar inside the helicopter, her feet dangling out of the opposite end of the aircraft.

Holy shit…!

She pulled herself deeper into the helicopter, taking a moment to wait and see if the aircraft would continue its plunge towards the ground. It remained in place, and she let out a sigh of relief.

Her eyes found the medkit in an instant, lying on the ground next to the skeletal remains of the co-pilot, and she scrambled towards it. She planted herself on the ground, desperately clicking the kit open to peer inside.

"Please be in here, please be in here…!"

Alcohol, a syringe, bandages, a suture, and a half dozen other things.

She closed the kit, holding it close to her chest, closing her eyes. This was going to save him. She wasn't going to-

"I'm not letting you go." She breathed. "I'm not letting you go…!"

It was harder getting out of the helicopter, but ultimately, she made it back to the ground level, clutching onto the medkit for dear life. When Clementine joined her, she rushed towards the baseball-capped girl, wrapping her arms around her in a tight embrace.

"Holy shit…" the words escaped her, how totally fucked that situation almost turned out to be finally weighing down on her. She'd been seconds away from dying, seconds away from losing her last chance at saving Joel…

Seconds away from leaving her best friend alone.

"... Never let me do that again, okay…?"

Art [Clementine]

That glass floor was a death-trap waiting to happen and they both knew it. Seeing it start to give in under Ellie's feet had her heart racing, every new fissure making it harder to keep watching. "Take it slow, you hear?" Clementine urged the girl from afar, dreading every second of Ellie's balancing act. Soon enough it came the time to make the jump, and by then, Clementine was already long past the point of saying stuff to cheer Ellie on. All she could do was cross her fingers and hope she didn't plunge to her death.

And even that wasn't enough.

The helicopter gave in to the weight in the matter of an instant. Clem's face went frozen pale, and she could only imagine that so had Ellie's. As awesome as it would've been to actually check on her first, by the time she heard the sound of screeching metal dragging across the snow, Clementine had already dashed to the other side of the mall, where after that nasty dive the helicopter now so precariously hung onto. Who knew for how long. She wasn't gonna wait to find out.

Everything seemed to work out in the end. Fucking barely. Ellie was crawling out of the helicopter when she got there, scared shitless. Both of them were... and that only made the hug easier to welcome. "You're too much of an asshole to listen anyway..." The girl uttered through a faint smile, hugging her back. That was the dumbest thing they'd ever done and she couldn't be happier about it being over and done with.

Clem let go pretty quick, the urgency of their situation not escaping her for even a moment. "Ready to go check on Joel?"

Dot [Ellie]

Ellie took a step back as they broke apart, responding to Clementine's question with a quick nod. Hopefully the way back wouldn't be as treacherous as the way here.

They continued through the mall in relative silence, though it wouldn't last long. Inside an old sports shop, they found at least a dozen dead bodies littering the place, their supplies left behind. Bites were evident on their necks and bodies, and Ellie quickly went to work on stabbing each one through the head before they'd search them. Last thing she wanted was for these things to turn into walkers before they got a chance to go through their stuff.

She couldn't tell if they were from the same group as before, but if they were , that meant they might've been trailing them. The very thought of those assholes being so close… it was unnerving. They had to get to Joel, and quickly.

These guys were carrying much more than Ellie had been expecting. She managed to scrounge together another four bullets for her pistol, while Clem found herself a couple bullets for her revolver. The biggest find, though, was a couple bags filled to the brim with food.

"Holy shit…" she breathed as she looked through one of the bags. There was just so much . How long were these guys planning to be out here that they were carrying around this much? Did they have a home somewhere? As long as they weren't close to it…

She grabbed the bag, stuffing the medkit inside before clutching its handle tightly. Clementine grabbed the other, and together they kept moving through the mall. Ellie let out a heavy breath as the store they'd left Joel in finally came back into view, dropping the bag next to the gate before lifting it for Clem to duck under. The girl held onto the gate next, allowing Ellie under before pulling the bag inside. When the gate closed, she turned her attention towards Joel's sleeping form, her breath shaky.

"Alright… let's get him back on his side." She grabbed the medkit from the bag before jogging towards him. When she kneeled, she glanced towards Clementine, worry lining her features. "...I don't… I haven't done this a lot… think you can stitch him up?"

She remembered how Clementine had to stitch up the dog bite on her arm, and found herself trusting her to do it better than Ellie ever could. She probably would've just made things worse...

Art [Clementine]

Corpses, like a whole jumble of dead bandits. It looked like those Clickers from before found something to keep them occupied. Good riddance. Cathartic was probably putting it lightly, considering, though it did feel pretty good to steal all of their shit. Looking over those assholes, she just wanted to obliterate every single one of them. Had Ellie not been there with her... Suffice to say, maybe it was a good thing that she was.

Back at Joel's, things weren't exactly looking up. All that blood he lost, it was gonna be a struggle and a half to keep him kicking. It wasn't something worth bringing up to Ellie, obviously. The least crap she had to deal with, the better. Sadly, that sort of thinking couldn't really go both ways.

Me? Clementine froze at the suggestion, despite it being more than its fair share of reasonable. That fleeting hope that she wouldn't have to look at... it again, that went down the drain pretty fast. She nodded quickly, shifting her focus towards her future patient. "Okay." No use wasting any time. The faster they stopped the bleeding, the better.

"We got any water?" She nudged her head in Ellie's direction, who made sure to fetch her some. "Thanks." She used it to rinse Joel's... injury? God, she didn't even know what to call it, and honestly? She was scared of looking at it too hard, worried of getting a peek at the guy's insides. Don't freak. It's just a hole. Just patching up a hole. It was hard not to get a little concerned over pouring that stuff over it. Water wasn't exactly clean. The wince in the girl's expression was somewhat hard to contain thanks to that. Sorry, Joel.

That was only part of the cleaning, though, and whatever challenge it kindled didn't hold a candle to what was about to follow. "Fuck, this is gonna..."

"Hang in there, Joel."

Clementine took from her backpack the cleanest rag she carried with her, which wasn't saying much. It didn't have any dirt in it, that was about it. Pouring a small bit of the antibiotic on its surface, she held up the wet rag, her hands starting to shake in foreboding. This isn't even the bad part... What is wrong with you? Get it together!

She applied it against Joel's wound, putting enough pressure behind it so that the injury could soak up every drop. She couldn't even imagine how bad it hurt. Like hell, probably. "You're doing good. You're... You're doing good." Clem repeated aloud, unsure if she was talking to Joel or to herself, really. After a minute or so, she threw the bloody rag away, shooting a brief look at Ellie before focusing her gaze back to Joel.

Fun was over. This was gonna be fucking awful.

Clementine started by pulling the needle and its thread out of the package inside the medkit. It looked brand new, or about as much as you could get to that nowadays. At least they wouldn't risk any sort of infection; the non-monster type, anyway.

"Elle, can you... hold him? I need someone to keep him steady." Her heart was pounding the ever-loving shit out of her chest, trying to dig its way out of her ribcage. Was this really okay? She was used to patching up cuts, not- "Okay, okay, okay, okay..." Clem whispered, this time undoubtedly to herself. One mess up and she'd seriously get him killed. Fucking up was out of the question. "Joel, if you're- If you're there, just..."

"...I need you not to make too much noise, alright? I'll be as quick as I can, I swear."

Clem took a bite out of the needle thread. Next, lowering it and puncturing the side of Joel's wound. Blood leaked out like crazy, but Clem kept her shit together. She fucking owed it to Joel. The needle went through the skin and punctured the other side, before being wrapped around the bloody hole for a follow-up. Her hands were soaked by the third time through, though sadly, that was a flimsy excuse to stop. One puncture after the next, she went on, the girl's teeth practically glued together.

You better not fucking die after this...

It was done, finally. Not her best work, not by a mile. It looked pretty horrible, but at least the stitches would hold up fine. That was probably the thing to go for, even if it wasn't a looker. Scar's gonna be awful, though. The girl wrapped the bandages from the kit around the wound, ensuring nothing could poke or sneak into that gaping hole of his. "I - I'm done," Clem announced in what was hardly more than a whimper, letting out the longest breath in her whole life. "I think he'll be fine. No idea when he'll wake up, but..."

"God, I hope he makes it."

Dot [Ellie]

Ellie could only watch uselessly as Clementine worked to save Joel's life, only helping when the baseball-capped girl requested her to do something. The pain written across Joel's face made it difficult to watch, but she forced herself to. She wanted to make sure he'd be okay, to see that he would be with her own eyes.

The process seemed to take forever. She nearly fell to the ground when it was finished, every ounce of adrenaline that she'd been holding on to being released all at once. For now, he was going to live.

He was going to live.

She kept herself on her knees, looking towards Clem with a mixture of relief and gratitude. Despite everything that… everything that Ellie ended up causing to happen, the girl had put that aside to save Joel. She admired her for it. To keep going when her entire world was left in disarray. She still wasn't sure what to say about it… or if she should say anything.

How do you apologize for leaving your best friend's 'dad' for dead?

She closed her eyes, ridding herself of the thought. Right now wasn't the time. Right now, she owed Clementine something much greater.

"Thank you, Clem," she spoke in a quiet, almost somber voice. "You don't know how much... everything you've done means to me."

With those words uttered, she lifted herself off of the ground, checking on Callus and Whiskers. The whole ordeal seemed to have spooked them, but Callus responded to her with a gentle nudge as she tried to run a hand over his muzzle.

In a way, they had both been spooked. Terrified of a situation outside of their control. There was something strange about being able to relate to a horse .

With Joel taken care of, they eventually came to the conclusion of staying the night inside the store. Come morning, they'd find somewhere warmer to set up camp. She only hoped that Joel would be awake by then.

---

9:09 PM - October 31, 2025 - Abandoned Rangers Station

Dot [Ellie]

Time was moving at a snail's pace. Snow covered almost every inch of the forest, and Ellie's boots were practically soaked through. Uncomfortable barely did justice for how she felt, yet it hardly mattered in that moment.

Her grip on Callus's reins tightened as she walked alongside him, looking back towards where Joel was being dragged on top of a makeshift 'bed' tied to the saddle, behind Callus. It probably wasn't comfortable, but there wasn't much they could do with the resources they had on hand.

Something in the distance ended up catching her eye, causing her to squint to make it out in the haze of snow falling in the inky black night. A small building, probably only two rooms on the first floor, left at the end of a small, two-lane road. Whatever it was, it would make for decent shelter for the night.

Anything would be better than staying in that store again, after the lack of any sort of warmth to be found in the mall. Maybe this place would be protected from the harsh winds; or better yet, they could build a fire.

Sighing, she turned towards her companion, pointing the place out with a finger. Hopefully the girl wasn't as… out of it as she had been for the past twenty-four hours. Not that she blamed her…

"Looks like shelter. Should clear the place out."

That was probably the most she'd said to the girl in the past four hours. Her voice felt almost croaky from disuse.

Art [Clementine]

Their horses' hooves clashed against the snow one after the other, repeating a seemingly endless pattern as they led the girls into the empty blur of white ahead, Joel's unconscious body being dragged by a pair of ropes tied to Callus.

Clementine couldn't hear any of it. The fourteen-year-old had since blocked out the sounds. Had to, to keep herself from losing her mind, giving into the stress crawling up her skin. Noises drowned out by her continual stream of thoughts.

She hadn't had the time to be... introspective, really. There was always something keeping those fears glued to the back of her mind, keeping her from letting them out, letting them develop into sorrow, and eventually, self-loathing. That privilege had died hours ago.

That really would be it, wouldn't it? The last time she got to hear his voice, see the warm look in his eyes as he told her he'd never leave her. Crying was something left for the rare moments when Ellie wasn't around, like it was something she felt too guilty, or embarrassed of sharing with someone else, someone like her. Clem didn't want a pity party, and Ellie sure as hell didn't deserve more shit to get upset about. It felt easier, dealing with it alone. It's the only way she ever learned how, and it wasn't about to change.

She supposed, in one way or another, she'd seen it coming, even prepared herself for it. Clem hoped it'd make it easier, somehow, but it hadn't. Not even the most miserable amount of it. She entertained herself with the idea of going back. Get any sort of closure on it. Any moment she imagined him... not being dead, was spent wondering how long it'd take until she accepted it. You could only afford to have so much hope left in you before reality wore you down.

" Looks like shelter ," Ellie croaked out after hours of dead silence, and Clem found herself too tired to care, her cold eyes staring off into the nothing ahead.

"Mm-hmm."

It was a good thing. Doing something. Letting it out on a few of the deadheads…

Anything to escape from her own head. Just for a little while.

Whiskers stayed behind for this one, waiting outside with his head down, dragging his feet through the snow. Even he could feel that something was amiss. His cargo had just gotten a whole lot lighter.

When facing the building's doors, two soft knocks was all it took, and infected groans filled the stormy air. Walkers. Could've been two or more. She signaled Ellie as much, urging her to open the door, though not without pulling her knife out first.

Dot [Ellie]

The interior was dark, but that gurgly, guttural noise that walkers made was beyond unmistakable. As Clem signalled for her to open the door, Ellie simply nodded back, pulling out her switchblade and holding it tightly in her right hand. With her left, she twisted the doorknob, pulling the door open just wide enough to let a single walker through.

She wasn't expecting them to be huddled together, or for them to push against the door with enough strength to send her stumbling backwards. The first two were out, heading for Clementine, and Ellie tried to shut the door on the third, only for it to knock the door back again, sending her falling to the snow below. She landed on her butt, groaning as all three walkers approached Clem with staggering steps.

She was on her feet before her brain had registered her pulling herself up. Running through snow wasn't exactly easy , but she didn't care. As Clem backed away, Ellie caught up to the last walker, tripping him and burying her blade into the back of his head.

The other two remained focused on Clem, and Ellie did the only thing she could think of to divide their attention.

She threw a rock at the second walker, who turned towards her with a fierce growl. She held her knife tightly, hands shaking from the biting cold.

Her voice was barely above a whisper as she waited for it to reach her. "Bring it on, asshole."

Art [Clementine]

Things escalated fast enough to keep Clementine from doing much of anything, watching Ellie fall on her ass from the corner of her eye, as two walkers started to gain on her, the two corpses slowly stumbling in Clem's direction. A sigh was all she could afford to give, clenching her jaw shut.

The girl backed away in careful steps, staying just over arms-length of the two infected. It wasn't smart; trying to take on two at the same time, this close together. Admiringly, Ellie made sure she wouldn't have to.

Now it was just her and it, and the odds were in her favor.

With the other one infected out of the way, Clementine put one foot forward, swinging her knife at the walker's jaw. The blade tore through its rotten flesh, getting stuck between the remnants of its noxious teeth. It tried to grab her with its right hand, but Clem was faster. She put enough force in hers to tear the monster's jaw off, thus using the knife to stab the walker's hand before it could reach her. She dragged it left, toward the building, his back against the wall. The decaying marrow of its bones meant only one thing: his hand was gone for good.

His left hand moved, and Clem put a stop to it once again, grabbing it mid-movement with one hand and slicing it off with the other. Defenseless and with nowhere to go, the walker wouldn't last another instant in the girl's line of sight.

Clementine stabbed it through the eye, the knife going through its brain and colliding with the wall behind it, effectively killing it again. The blood had gotten all over her new jacket, but she didn't give a damn. Clem was way past the point of caring, rage spelled in her eyes.

Now she just had to check up on Ellie.

Dot [Ellie]

The walker was closing in now, forcing Ellie to take several steps back to keep him at a distance, until she knew that Clementine was safe. Her eyes darted between its rotting face and beyond it, sighing with relief as Clementine finished off her walker. She took another step back.

She didn't expect the ice.

Her foot slipped from underneath her, sending her crashing to the ground with a startled yelp. She clutched onto her knife tightly, holding it up to prevent the walker from falling on top of her. It worked, if barely. The blade buried itself into the walker's chest, its growls only growing stronger. It clawed at her face, and she jerked her head back, nearly colliding with the snow-covered ground beneath her.

"Get… the fuck… OFF!" She growled, trying to push the thing off of her.

And failing.

Art [Clementine]

Before Ellie knew it, the infected one had moved its clacking teeth away, having been pulled in the opposite direction. Clementine grabbed the walker by the collar of its tattered shirt, forcing her hunting knife through its throat. It struggled, trying to reach for the little girl behind it, but it couldn't do a damned thing to stop her. She pulled out the knife - the opening in the monster's neck bursting with blood like a hose - before ingraining the blade in its skull, shifting it left and right in order to force it deeper in, straight through its brain.

The walker fell limp on the ground, oozing with crimson, the knife still lodged in its head. Clementine, on the other hand, heaved air like crazy, all that exertion starting to take its toll. She found the strength to flash her friend a smile, nonetheless, extending her hand to help Ellie up. "Didn't hit your head, did you?"

Dot [Ellie]

Ellie clenched her eyes shut as blood splattered all over her, the sickening sensation only overwhelmed by the relief she felt when the undead thing was pulled off of her. She wiped her face, trying to rid herself of the blood, but only ended up smearing it on her forehead and cheek.

Whatever, she had other things to worry about.

She took Clem's hand, grunting as the other girl helped her up. She glared at the patch of ice behind her, wiping off the snow that covered her jacket.

"No," she finally stated to Clem's question, looking between her and Joel's lying form on his 'bed' behind Callus. "Just my ass," she grumbled, stepping past Clementine to head over to Callus. She stopped halfway, looking towards her friend out of the corner of her eye. "Come on. Let's get him inside."

Art [Clementine]

With Ellie up and running and the undead back to being just dead, Clem let out a brief sigh of relief, locking her eyes with the blacked out Joel. The best they could do for him right now was find him someplace warm. Anything else... it was an uphill battle only he had the power to fight. She helped drag the old timer inside the building, prompting Whiskers to follow with a quiet whistle. Cozy, it was not. For once the smell of blood wasn't the most noticeable one, and that wasn't a good thing.

Clementine scanned the crummy floor for a place to sit, settling for one of the corners, leaning against the wall with her arms wrapped around her knees. The girl could still see her own breath with every puff of air, her hands refusing to settle, shivering in the cold. Should've grabbed some gloves... Finally, Clem's gaze settled on Ellie and the dozing smuggler, a rub of her nose followed by a soft inquiry. "How's he?"

Dot [Ellie]

Ellie sweeped the building with her flashlight, checking every room - although there weren't many - for any more walkers, and came up with nothing. She returned to the lobby to check on Joel, untying his makeshift mattress from Callus and leading the horses into the garage connected to the station via a door in the back. At least there they'd have some room to move around until morning.

When Clementine spoke up, Ellie kneeled next to Joel, concern etching across her face. He was shivering. This place wasn't warm enough, and they couldn't just… make a fire in here.

She cursed under her breath. "We need to find somewhere warmer. Maybe they have, like… a fireplace, or something."

She sighed, standing up. "Come on, let's check the place out."

The ranger station consisted of two floors.

On the first, the main lobby dominated the majority of the floor, while a small kitchen and dining area took up the back. Ellie searched through the kitchen for anything useful, but only came up with a bottle of… something called Southern Comfort. Some kind of whiskey, as far as she could tell. Wouldn't be the best antiseptic, but it was better than nothing, when they'd run out of whatever was left in the first aid kit.

A staircase led up to the second floor, where about three or four offices lined the hallway. They almost appeared untouched, desks and computers left as they were, only covered in an atrocious amount of spider webs.

At the far end of the floor, a glass door revealed a balcony that overlooked the winding river cutting its way through the forest, dropping deeper into a valley that was shrouded in the heavy snowfall. Under normal circumstances, the view would be enough to leave her in awe. Right now, though, there were far more pressing matters to attend to.

A small fire pit was positioned to the right side of the balcony, surrounded by chairs that have long since been overturned from the wind. A roof hung over the balcony, blocking out most of the snowfall that was coming down, and the wind was pushing it towards the river beyond. At least it'd be semi-comfortable here.

Inside, she found a bunch of logs left behind in a neat pile. She grabbed a few and dropped them into the pit, heading downstairs to find Clementine.

"They've got a fire pit on a balcony up there." She began to lift Joel from the 'bed', hauling him towards the stairs. "Please tell me you found more matches?"

Art [Clementine]

Clem stuck to the lower area while Ellie searched upstairs, keeping a close eye on Joel, and mostly scrounging up whatever was left of that place. Spoiled food and rusty tools were in great supply, as was the amount of useless junk, like old papers and broken souvenirs. Ruffling through the trash can, however, the girl did find something not totally worthless, and Ellie had shown her face just in time to see it. Clementine rose the discarded box of matches above her head, showing it to her with a faint smile. They'd had worse days.

The good news was that upstairs smelled a whole lot better, if not only because of the balcony Ellie mentioned. The absolute numbing cold more than made up for whatever good that did, though thankfully that wouldn't last long enough to be a problem. Kneeling down next to the pit, Clem lit one of the seven matches inside the box, cupping her hand around it so as to keep the wind from blowing it out, then placing it under the logs Ellie had dropped there previously. It took a few frustrating attempts, but it all felt stupid worth it as soon as the flames rose in front of her eyes, warmth setting in on her skin like the girl hadn't felt in weeks.

Sitting down came naturally after that, as though her knees couldn't take another second, every one of her limbs shutting down one after the other until she was resting comfortably near the fire, eyes dropping from sheer exhaustion. "C'mere. The fire's nice," Clem said, using up the last bit of excitement still left in her voice to holler Ellie over, eyes fixated to the light emanating from the fire pit.

Dot [Ellie]

Ellie cleared a spot next to the fire for Joel, pushing away any snow around the area with her foot before knocking it off the edge of the balcony. With the fire slowly gaining in strength, she found herself leaning on the railing overlooking the world below.

...

What were they going to do? Joel still hadn't shown signs of waking up. Fighting off an infection that just might end up killing him. They've already changed the bandages at least twice since the mall. Now… the reality of the situation was beginning to set in. The possibility that Joel might not make it after all.

I should've shot that asshole. I should've done something …

That feeling of regret had settled into the pit of her stomach, and had remained there for the past thirty something hours. Joel was dying. Lee was… gone. Clementine wasn't herself because of it, and Ellie just… ugh.

It wasn't fair. Any of it. Like the world had decided to shove a middle finger right in their faces. She was ready to shove it right back.

Clementine's voice broke her from that train of thought, causing her to look towards her out of the corner of her eye. Her stomach twisted, clutching the railing tighter. This… wasn't the time to be brooding. She had to be strong, for Joel, and for Clem. They wouldn't make it otherwise.

She pushed herself away from the railing, taking the next few steps to sit in between Clementine and where Joel was lying down. The fire crackled in the momentary silence, only to be quieted by the howl of the wind blowing over the station. She reached her hands out, letting the small flames warm her frozen hands.

She opened her mouth to say something, but the words caught in the back of her throat, forcing her to clamp her mouth shut again. She didn't know why this was so hard. Why she couldn't tell her that she was sorry about what happened with Lee, or even bring him up at all. That had become the crux of it, the thing that kept them in an uncomfortable silence for extended periods of time. She hated it.

Still, the words she wanted to say wouldn't come.

Art [Clementine]

The girl's lips felt unfathomably heavy, dragged and pressed moments at a time to form crooked smiles. As the one sitting right under her nose slowly came to evaporate into a heartrending frown, Clem quickly realized that she couldn't find the strength to do it anymore, even long after the numbness settled in her fingers had come to pass. Her chest went back to hurting like a bleeding wound, the stillness in her mind only serving to bring back those grim thoughts she could only find herself being able to contain for so long.

Even with Ellie there, next to her, Clementine would've been pressed to recall a time in her life where she'd felt more alone.

Her body trembled without a hint of stopping, and she could tell rather plainly that it wasn't because of the cold. The harder Clem tried to wrap her head around their situation, find a solution, the worse she felt. The more she thought back to the last few days, the more her heart pounded, the paler her skin became. The fire could only bring so much comfort to a shaken little kid.

The silence, then, was bittersweet and largely unwanted. She knew why her friend was so reluctant to talk, why the air felt thicker than the ice piling up on top of the roof they were under. It wasn't her fault. It wasn't anybody's fault. No one's but the people who took him from her. The ones who did that to Joel. Her glances toward Ellie were few and far between, though the last one did linger for longer than the rest, a question forming from under her breath.

"You scared, too?"

Dot [Ellie]

Scared was an understatement. Their future was uncertain; their lives were constantly in peril, even now. The feeling of dread had already settled on her skin, like a thin layer of cold sweat. She was the one having to step up and make sure things don't go to shit, but even she's a step away from jumping off the edge. That was just… too much to ask for, out of Clementine. To deal with her bullshit on top of their current predicament and the girl's own issues. Joel might die, but Lee already was.

She let out a slow breath, closing her eyes. She opened them after a long pause, glancing towards her friend with what could've only been interpreted as remorse.

Her answer was quiet, and short.

"Always."

Art [Clementine]

The sky was painted black with no stars to be looked upon, the light cast by the flames, and the moonlight shining down on them being the sole reason the two girls weren't left in utter darkness. Clem answered Ellie's cut-and-dried response with a curt nod, lowering her head the moment after, her eyes obscured by the nightfall.

The quiet returned as unforgiving as ever, strung along by the odd sounds of crackling fire and heavy snowfall. Clem drew her two feet together, curling into a ball to shield herself from the bitter cold, yet another hint of the girl's tender voice exiting through a sigh.

"I'm glad you're here."

The words escaped her on their own, like a sudden twitch. Thinking of Lee for hours on end, and of all the times she had the chance to tell him that and didn't... it came as naturally as the tears now glistening in her eyes. "I know I don't say it enough. I just thought..."

Realization came with the impulse to quickly dry them away, which she hastily did with the palm of her left hand, the girl whimpering, turning her head to face the other way. "Fuck." She just couldn't look her friend in the eyes anymore, wrapping her arms around herself, struggling to keep all that pain from coming adrift.

" I'm so fucking scared, Ellie. "

Dot [Ellie]

Her gut twisted as Clementine's words washed over her, realizing then just how much her instinctual urge to not bring up Lee or anything bad about their situation had only made things worse. Of course she was worrying about it. Why wouldn't she be? This was shit. Actually, this was beyond shit. It was something out of a fucking nightmare. The only things keeping her together was the fact that Joel wasn't dead yet, and Clementine was still there with her. She wasn't alone.

And that only made her feel worse when Clementine told her that she was glad that she was there with her.

She mentally cursed, wringing her hands together to gather warmth in them. How could she possibly get Clem to feel better? Consoling people wasn't something she was really… experienced with. She had always been the one being consoled. With Riley…

She took in a deep breath suddenly, allowing herself to scooch closer to Clem in order to wrap an arm around her, a sort of sideways hug that she hoped would bring the girl some kind of comfort. It probably wouldn't work, but what else could she do? Just sit there and let her best friend fall deeper into this pit of shit they've found themselves in? No fucking way.

"We're gonna be okay," she started strongly, emphasizing each word. She didn't believe that for a second, but she wanted it to be true. For Clem's sake. "Joel's going to pull through, but until then, we… we gotta do what we can, okay? We've been through some serious shit. All of us. We've made it this far. We… nothing's gonna stop us." She paused, taking in a deep breath. "It's okay to be scared, but…" She struggled to find something to say, something meaningful that'd help Clementine out. She tightened her grip around Clementine, hoping that'd give some sort of reassurance as her next words punctuated the air. "We don't give in to fear. We just… tell it to 'fuck off'. Right?"

Art [Clementine]

Clem's red nose sniffed the frigid air in short order, her eyes still melting into droplets of water. When Ellie put her arm around her, the rest of her body melted too, closing down and ceasing to function. Days and days of playing tough, crumbling into weeping while she smeared her tears on her friend's shoulder.

It wasn't how she wanted to deal with it, but Clementine couldn't do much to help it anymore.

Taking into account the fact that incoherent mumbles were all that left her clattering teeth, Ellie would just need to have faith in how much she soothed the ballcap-wearing girl. Clementine promised herself she'd toughen up come morning, show Ellie the same strength and disposition she always did when her best friend was the one needing comfort.

Tonight, she just wanted to let herself feel sad and afraid for once.

Dot [Ellie]

As Clementine quickly devolved into a weeping mess, laying her head against Ellie's shoulder while the older girl rubbed at her arm reassuringly, it occurred to Ellie just how infrequently she'd seen her like this. In fact, she couldn't recall a time it'd ever happened. She didn't want to see it again. She'd be there for her every time it happened, but… she was going to try and find a way to keep the girl from ever having to feel that way again. A promise that she knew she could never keep yet meant in equal measure.

To see someone as strong as her falling apart at the seams. To see how truly devastated she was, how lonely she felt in the wake of Lee's absence. It was almost too much to bear. If they could fall asleep there, Clementine safe in her arms, then she'd fall asleep knowing that, at least, she'd done something good for her. It was hardly enough to repay the debt she owed to Clementine, but it was a start.

Her eyes trailed down to her best friend, lips twisting sympathetically as she lifted her free hand to remove the girl's baseball cap, laying the soaked thing in her lap. She ran her fingers along the edge of the hat, looking towards the fire for a while, and giving Joel occasional, worried glances as he moved in his sleep. He was going to make it. She was sure of it. No matter what, he had to.

She couldn't take care of all three of them.

---

11:35 PM

Dot [Ellie]

The balcony was deathly quiet beyond the occasional howl of the wind and the muffled whinny of their horses inside. The majority of their night was spent in this, leaving Ellie to find something to do to occupy herself. There wasn't much, besides taking stock of all the food they nabbed from the dead bandits the previous day, so when she was finished with that… boredom had already set in.

The world beyond the balcony was pitch black, and the occasional, distant croak of an infected reminded her that the world still existed beyond the veil of snow surrounding them. It wasn't much earlier that Clementine had fallen asleep, her head lying in Ellie's lap, her face facing the flames burning in front of them, leaving Ellie to watch over Joel nearby until it was her turn.

With little else to do, she found herself reading through the book she'd intended to give to Clem back in Jackson, for her birthday, using the firelight to see the words printed on the pages. Her old pink and white jacket was underneath her, serving as a particularly uncomfortable seat on the ground, while the book hovered an inch over the top of Clementine's head.

The book was… interesting. The main character, some kid named Max, found his room turned into a jungle after he tore up his parents' home in a wolf costume, causing him to be sent to bed without dinner. For some reason, he ended up sailing to an island inhabited by some creatures known as the 'wild things', and he ended up being crowned their king. When he got lonely, he returned to his room to find his supper waiting for him.

It was… certainly something.

There was a child-like innocence to it that Ellie could barely comprehend. The idea of romping around in a wolf costume brought her back to that costume store in Boston, when Riley told her to put a wolf mask on and 'roar'. Letting out that roar had been almost liberating, and she had a feeling that Max felt the same in the story. To be something other than himself for a change. To live a life that he couldn't ever live.

In a way, she related to him. To wanting to be something other than what you are. To embrace your imagination. To not be the cure for mankind…

She decided then that she did like the book, slipping it back into her backpack in a quiet manner. Maybe there was a reason why Clementine held onto that book, besides being her last remaining memento of her mother. Did Clementine ever had any 'adventures' like the one in the book with her parents, playing on a farm? Not having to worry about the walkers, or the infected. Being a child for once. She didn't get to have that, growing up in the orphanages.

The only thing that came even close was her time with the Walkman. She had vague memories of when she got it, almost too obscure to remember. Being five years old, the mysterious device being handed to her by the headmaster, who only toyed with her until finally giving it to her. She still didn't know who it was from, in the end, but someone brought it in for her, and it wasn't that asshole of a headmaster. Music got her through the roughest patches, though nowadays probably trumped those days.

She let out a sigh, which came out in a wispy cloud. In the silence filling the balcony, a sudden noise emanated from Clementine, causing Ellie to look down at her with pursed lips, concern etching across her face.

She was mumbling. In the process of clutching Ellie's leg with one hand, as if doing so would rid herself of whatever bad dream she was having. As the seconds ticked by, they became louder, clearer, desperate.

Ellie's mouth fell into a frown. She was having a nightmare. Clenching her eyes shut, Ellie pinched the bridge of her nose. A part of her hated seeing Clem going through that… but what could she do? You can't fight nightmares. You can't protect people from their own demons… or the ones you forced on them...

All she could do was rub the girl's arm softly, in hopes that it'd do something to calm the girl down.

Art [Clementine]

Where had Dad gone to?

Clementine searched through every corner of the house, from the porch to the narrow stables. Animals, from large to small, made dreadful noises as she passed. They looked to her for help, begging for it through pained cries, but she was so little. Aside from the hay dragged by her toes, the farm didn't make a sound, slowing her breath to a halt. The birds and crickets had left, too. Even the wind. It was only her.

The sun had set what felt like hours ago, and her bedroom was pitch dark, like the inside of a cave. It dripped with water, walls covered with ice, causing the small girl to shiver from both the cold, as well as the fear. She was terrified. Her arms were wrapped around her chest, knees huddled together. Clem's wide eyes, the only color in an otherwise dim, colorless space.

There wasn't anyone to tuck her in that night. Not Mom. Not Dad. Not L-

Before any thoughts could form in her tiny head, Clementine had left the house behind her, backpack in hand. Where were they? How could Mom and Dad have left her? Her sandals dug into the grass as if the large patches of it were made out of quicksand, but she trudged on. On, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and-

By the river, her dad sat lackadaisically with a fishing rod in hand, whistling to himself a song that had no sense of rhythm. Daylight painted the background like a coloring book, so hot it made the pier do cartoonishly loud crackling sounds. "Hey, Clementine!" Dad called out to her. There was so much warmth in his voice, the sun almost paled in comparison. But she felt funny. Her joints were sore. Nose running. Its tip seeming more iceberg than skin.

"I feel weird. I'm cold, Dad," said the little girl, her yellow dress now, too, against the pier as she sat next to her father.

He didn't say anything to that. Wouldn't, so as to not break character. His daughter was awfully smart. If Ed couldn't keep his act together, she'd figure out he wasn't really there in no time. "Did you do your chores yet?" He asked in response, smiling his stupid smile, patting her hair like he used to every day.

Like he used to.

"Where'd you go?" She insisted on the questions, leaning closer to Dad, brows furrowed. Clem didn't much care about her chores. If the horses were well fed, or goats strong and healthy. Clem was a lot more interested in knowing where he'd been yesterday.

Ed seemed baffled by the question, looking at the girl almost amused. "What do you mean? I'm right here."

She sighed. How could she care about chores ? If the fucking horses got fed that morning or if Snow White had been mauled alive, her guts laying on the ground in front of her. She just missed her parents so much, desperate to know where they'd been for the last six years.

"Oh."

It was a dream.

What a silly dream.

"You look worried," said her fake dad, faking a fake smile in his fake farm. Clementine shook her head, left and right, nonstop, like trying to shake away a naughty thought. He looked so real, even with features so blurry, his voice just a fragment of fractured memories. Water in her eyes, Clem outstretched her small, seven-year-old hands, letting them rest atop her father's shoulder, sliding down to his bicep. Her grasp was herculean, but she only felt his moist jacket, freezing her palms and shattering her heart.

"You're one sad girl, you know that?"

She sobbed like the baby she was. Her pretend-dad looked so puzzled, but that only made her want to hold tighter, as though he'd fly away otherwise, like a balloon. "Dad?" She called out, eyes closed, to see if he was still there. But he only answered with silence. Eventually, that flawed reflection of Ed reached his hands around his daughter, rubbing her arm softly while mulling over words he pretended to be his.

"You gonna leave her too?" Shock blocked her tears, giving way for eyes round with surprise. Dad sounded hurt. Disappointed in her. So many things a fake person had no right to express. Dad had never met 'her'. He wasn't real. He wasn't.

But Clem wanted him to be. She wanted it so badly.

"N - No! I didn't -"

"You didn't mean to, I know. I mean, your mother's the one who told you to run. No one's blaming you."

Clementine lost herself to the tears, rubbing them against Dad's shirt. She couldn't stop, because she loved him so much. Because she wanted him to be the one with her, instead of all that hurt.

Ed scratched his chin, utterly detached. Air slowly escaped his lips, making way for more distant words. "I'm gonna miss Lee. Won't you? He sure made it easier. To forget about me." Dad's expression twisted, brows forming spirals as his lips contorted into a frown, tears welling up in his eyes. "Did you?"

No... No...!

"Well," he pinched his nose, letting the water fade away from his eyes. "I... I forgive you. I know you did all you could. You're so strong, ain't you? My little girl."

Ed pulled her closer, Clem's cheeks against his own.

She hugged him. Clementine couldn't help it. Even if he wasn't Dad.

Even if it wasn't really him.

Dad frowned, again.

"Or were you hoping he'd die, Clementine?"

Clem burst into tears - violent ones. The girl covered her ears, but Dad's whispers still found their way through. "Why didn't you come back?"

She grimaced and fought back, but it wouldn't stop. It wouldn't. "You're not real. You're not real. You're not real. Not real. Not real. Notreal. NotrealNotreal.

Notrealnotrealnotreal notrealnotrealnotrealnotrealnotreal ."

"You're right, hon. I'm dead, too."

Dot [Ellie]

" Dad… "

That word tumbling out of her friend's mouth had been enough to freeze every muscle in Ellie's body. More than the cold biting at the edge of her consciousness could ever hope to accomplish. Whatever nightmare Clementine was enduring right now, it wasn't… it wasn't something that would just go away . No matter how hard Ellie tried to comfort her.

" You're not real… "

Ellie dug her left hand underneath her friend's head, letting it rest against her arm while she wrapped her other hand over the girl's stomach to hold her close in a semi-hug.

She was shivering. So was Ellie.

She brought her lips close to the girl's ear. "I'm here, Clem. If you need me." What was she even saying? It wasn't like she could pretend to be her dad… It wasn't like she could pretend that she'd ever mean more to her than her own parents or Lee could; she didn't even want to. Yet… the anguish written across Clem's face… God , she couldn't take it. Clementine was the strong one. Since the beginning. She was the one picking her up when she faltered. But seeing this…? Maybe they were just a couple scared little girls.

"I'm- I'm real."

Art [Clementine]

Waking up in a sweat seemed so hard with that mountain of snow collected on the balcony roof, and yet Clementine's shirt was soaked with it. Her eyes flickered open. Tired, so tired, and yet wider than they'd ever been. She woke up to the heat of the flames flickering in front of her, face rested on... something .

Clem's heart went berserk, losing any and all sense of a proper flow. The girl's eyes hovered upward, vision still blurry, clearing bit by bit. And she saw Ellie's worried expression, what felt like inches away from her nose, still chilly from the winter. She'd fallen asleep on... Ellie's lap? Her face wasn't so cold anymore. It was boiling hot, giving off bright red hues. Clem's legs visibly shrunk, her knees closing in, boots wrapping themselves atop one another. The embarrassment had her choking on words that never ever seemed to come out, only making her hold the other girl tighter, and her chest hotter and more filled with air.

Slowly - all too methodically - Clementine pushed herself into a sitting position, avoiding Ellie's gaze like the plague. It was so much...

Did she... D - Did she hear her in her sleep?

Clementine swallowed while the ticker in her chest did the talking, thump thump thumping so loudly she could swear even her friend could hear it. Clem's legs and nose bundled up more and more until the girl could fit nicely into a tiny box, mumbling the quietest apology of her entire life.

"S - Sorry."

Dot [Ellie]

The urge to reach out and comfort her friend was too much to bear, but she managed to wring her hands together in her lap, eyes falling to the fire in front of her as Clementine's meek voice reached her ears. She brushed a slew of rogue hairs from out of her face and behind her ear, trying her best to put on a smile that'd make Clem feel better. Anything to not dwell on what had just happened a second ago.

"Bad dreams happen to everyone," she stated in an even tone, shrugging her shoulders. "You don't have to… y'know , apologize." Her gaze fell to the floor for a fraction of a second, indecision twinkling in her eyes. She mulled over her next words, chewing her lip. "Do you… wanna talk about it? You don't have to if you don't wanna…"

Art [Clementine]

She let her gaze escape, linger elsewhere. Anywhere else. Clem shut herself away behind an exterior long since threatening to give away. The thought of going back to that dream scared her more than she thought Ellie could understand. Clem trembled, more and more. Arms, hands, and toes. Knowing then to blame the snow, pretending it was nothing else.

Clementine was on her feet quicker than she'd realized, longing for distance. For something to keep her busy. Something to quell all the bad thoughts - Run away from them if she could. "I'm doing watch tonight." She spoke at her softest, panicked steps leading her away before Ellie could convince her not to.

It was easier that way.

Dot [Ellie]

Ellie opened her mouth to try and stop her, but Clementine was gone in an instant, disappearing indoors. She pushed herself to her feet in a heartbeat, feet skidding in the thin layer of snow as she followed behind.

"Clem…?" Her voice was answered with silence, the girl she was chasing nearing the stairs leading down to the bottom floor. Ellie picked up the pace, calling out for her again, sterner than before. "Clem!"

By the time she reached Clementine, they were already downstairs, and Ellie gently wrapped her fingers around the girl's arm, the light-blue of her jacket barely visible in the darkness. "Clem, I can't- What kind of best friend would I be if I just left you alone? We stick together, okay? No matter what."

"So if you're gonna sit down here in the cold, then I'm doing it too. Even if I have to sleep in it."

Art [Clementine]

A pull of her arm had Clementine stopping, even when her legs wanted to go on without her. Her hand twitched, demanding to pull away, but she kept it at bay, turning her eyes away from her pleading friend. She held back phrases as blunt as 'Just leave me alone' through a bite of her lip, letting Ellie be the one to talk, even when unequipped to listen. Clem, like no other time she could recall, was just waiting for a chance to tell her off.

Instead, her crushed little heart sunk even further.

Talking felt impossible. Mutters and mumbles, but never real words. The girl's lips quivered until she gave in, letting her arm loosen while in Ellie's heavy grasp. " Okay. "

"Sure. Okay..."

Clementine's old cargo pants scratched against the porch while the girl searched for a comfortable position to sit, rifle nestled between forearm and knee. She didn't really find one, and wouldn't have. Not with Ellie so close to her. Clem fell to a soft sneeze when the wind picked up, the girl occasionally sighing puffs of smoke that disappeared into thin air. The snow pierced her skin as if from the night sky descended literal butter knives, each painfully landing on her skin before stiffening and turning into ice. The freezing girl struggled to put thoughts into words, for she well-near refused to.

"It was... about my dad."

Every single syllable weighed a thousand pounds, filled with all sorts of emotional baggage she never wanted to unpack aloud. Why even bother...? Because you owe it to Ellie, that loud voice in Clementine's head so valiantly tried to justify. 'No more secrets.' Yeah. Whatever that promise was still worth. Clem drew air so cold it made her have to wipe her nose with her sleeve, letting that arm rest on top of her knees while she put off having to say any more. "Sometimes I dream about being back on the farm. I'm seven again, and he's there." Her voice, then, sounded cooler than the air. Though quiet anger would seep through odd phrases when the girl couldn't help herself. "Dad says he doesn't blame me for leaving him and Mom. Then it ends."

Clementine kept her eyes forward, letting them dip downward before she picked her gaze back up, setting it back on the empty blackness ahead. "Other times he says it's my fault they died. It changes."

"I never get to see Mom."

"This time, he..." A loud sniff keeps her from talking. The cold - she blames it again, wiping her nose with the dexterity of a drunken tailor. Even while silent, she doesn't look at her friend. Not one passing glance. Clem was too scared to. "I sit next to him and he says I left Lee too."

A harrowing silence began to set in, one which Clementine interrupted with an equally frightening glare. A glare directed at Ellie. That icy tone of hers returning, more evident than ever. "That's it. You happy?"

Dot [Ellie]

With those words uttered, Ellie let go of Clementine's arm, watching as she headed outside, onto the porch. Ellie followed her cautiously, planting herself against the rotted wood flooring on the other side of the steps from her friend.

She was more than comfortable just sitting there in silence. As long as they were together, they could deal with any threats, but she wasn't going to insist on talking out Clem's nightmare. She'd already made it clear that she didn't want to talk about it.

Which made hearing her next words so awful to hear, like a knife being twisted into her gut. She stiffened, looking towards the snow drifts surrounding the ranger station as the girl kept going on about the dream, eventually forcing herself to look towards her when she'd finished. The look she got back twisted the knife even further.

What was she supposed to say to that? She wasn't trying to torture Clem, just… help her. Somehow. The resentment in the girl's eyes, though, only showed that her efforts had the opposite effect.

It felt as though her heart stopped at that moment, and she was struggling to reboot it. Her gaze fell to the snow drifts once more, clenching her eyes shut. This sucked.

"It's… not your fault," Ellie spoke softly, meekly, struggling to look anywhere but at her friend on the other side of the porch. "Whatever happened with your parents. With Lee. None of that is your fault." Her words had a sort of irony to them, the more she spoke, knowing that she didn't believe them herself, for the things she's done in the past. Would she ever stop blaming herself for Riley? Or Tess? Her mother? Probably not. "Your parents… Lee… they love you. We all do. So, um… yeah."

She wanted to say more, but her mouth stopped cooperating then. She had a feeling Clem didn't want to hear what she had to say anyway.

Art [Clementine]

Her amber eyes, again, ran for their lives to a corner far away. One hand grasping at her rifle while the other clutched at her knee, digging into gathers of snow. "What would you know?" Clementine scoffed, words oozing with both anguish and contempt.

"Yours left you too."

Dot [Ellie]

Ellie's head fell towards the ground in an instant, pulling her legs close to her chest and wrapping her arms around them. The words that had reached her ears stung with vile ferocity, the knife from before being more like a sword impaling her. Had she any strength left, sharp words of her own would've left her, but instead silence was the only thing she could give.

Suddenly, leaving Clementine alone didn't seem that bad of an idea anymore. The thought left a boulder in her stomach, weighing her down infinitely.

She still managed to push herself to her feet, though, not daring to look in the other girl's direction as she headed inside, where she'd finally get a chance to breathe. To calm down.

"I'm gonna check on Joel."

The door closed behind her with a resounding click, leaving the girl to hold back tears as she stomped through the ranger station.