The pair approached the gas station with care. Clementine stabbed the downed bodies littering the gas pumps while Sarah covered her with the rifle. None of them seemed to be walkers, and certainly weren't after Clem stabbed them. Much to the girl's frustration, her tomahawk kept getting jammed in the skulls of the dead. After needing Sarah's help to free it from the latest head it was stuck in, Clem made a mental note to practice with those sharpening stones as soon as she got back.

The interior was a mess, like most places they saw. Unlike most places, the shelves weren't completely empty. Amongst them were loaves of bread that were closer to loaves of mold now, rotten chocolate bars that had been half devoured by pests, and what was likely a small selection of fruit that had withered into shrunken black husks of their former selves. The girls also couldn't take a step without sending a small swarm of cockroaches darting across the floor.

"This place is so gross," said Sarah.

"I know," said Clem. "Everywhere we usually check is places people have already been. But these people must have died before they could take everything."

"Does that mean they left the stuff that doesn't rot too?" asked Sarah.

"I hope so." Clem was disappointed to see the shelves for canned goods were even emptier than most of the other ones, but looking in the very back she did spot a few unclaimed commodities.

"I think this is canned pineapples." Pulling back her find, Clem knocked over a box of cereal. The box flopped onto the floor and several rats came scurrying out.

"Ah!" Sarah jumped back a few feet as the rodents scampered away.

"Well, at least we know nobody's been here in a really long time," reasoned Clem.

"Yeah, but I don't think we want to eat in here." Sarah eyed the putrid dairy section at the end of the store where several jugs of noxious yellow substance were still sitting on display. "I'm afraid to even take my mask off in here."

"Yeah, it probably smells awful," realized Clem. "But I think I know where it'd be okay to rest."

The girls located the bathrooms and, after a quick evaluation, settled on the one that appeared slightly cleaner. It was hardly an ideal solution, but the sorry state of the storefront seemed like a bad place to stop and eat. Clem found a can opener, a couple of plastic spoons and an unopened bottle of water and returned to the bathroom, where Sarah had set up their lantern so they could see.

Locking the door, Clementine felt a great sense of relief finally removing her backpack and an even greater relief from sitting down. Sarah seemed to share the sentiment, rubbing her back a little after removing her raincoat. The two piled their equipment into the corner and sat down opposite of it to rest. Reluctantly, Clem removed her respirator and sniffed the air.

"Well?" asked Sarah.

"It stinks in here," reported Clem as the smell of mildew and the rancid raincoats irritated her nostrils. "But, it's not too bad."

Sarah removed her respirator next while Clem reached for the water. She unscrewed the cap and immediately put the bottle to her lips. The young girl hadn't even realized just how thirsty she was until she felt that water sliding over her parched throat. It was even slightly chilled from the early morning cold.

"Clem, slow down." Clem set the bottle down and took a deep breath, feeling much better than she did a minute ago. "Save some for me."

Clem looked at the bottle and was shocked to see she had drunk over half of it. "Oops." Clem quickly offered what's left to Sarah. "I'm really sorry Sarah, I—"

"It's fine." Sarah took the bottle and hastily drank what remained, a sense of relief washing over her face as she finished, much like Clem suspected she looked a minute ago. Sarah set the empty bottle aside and took a breath. "I really needed that."

"Yeah, me too."

"I'd get our canteens, but they're buried under a dozen boxes of bullets right now," said Sarah.

"Don't worry about it," assured Clem. "Let's just eat and get going." Clem collected the canned pineapples and the can opener. She put the tool on the can, then realized she had no idea what to do next.

"What's wrong?" asked Sarah.

"I'm used to the can openers with big handles. Where you just turn the thing. I've never used one of these before, where it's just a little hook thing."

"I can do it." Clem handed the can and the opener to Sarah and watched carefully. Sarah hooked the tool's point inside the edge and pulled up on the handle until there was a pop. The opener made an incision, and Clem watched as Sarah moved the tool slightly to make another cut next to the first one.

"Where did you learn to do that?" asked Clem.

"My dad," said Sarah.

"At Shaffer's?"

"Before that. One Thanksgiving I wanted to open the can of cranberry jelly. He gave me one those can openers with the handles, but I saw one like this in the drawer and asked him how you open cans with it."

"Why?"

"Just curious. I thought it'd be fun to try it with that instead of the other can opener, but it wasn't, it was just a pain. But he let me open it anyway because I really wanted to." Clem watched as Sarah continued to slowly cut the can open. "It's only like two weeks away."

"What is?" asked Clem.

"Thanksgiving," said Sarah. "Although I'm not sure when exactly, since it's always on a Thursday. But it's already November tenth, so it's probably like two weeks away."

"Thanksgiving…" Clementine sighed. "So much food."

"I know." Clem watched eagerly as Sarah pried the lid off the can and revealed the juicy morsels of pineapple inside. "That looks so good." Clem ripped the plastic wrap off the spoons she took and handed one to Sarah. Clem carefully scooped a piece of fruit and a generous helping of syrup into her spoon. Popping the treat into her mouth, Clem just let it sit there for a moment, savoring the sweet taste before she started chewing, which she did slowly so as to make the flavor last as long as possible.

"I remember thinking it was stupid when my teacher said fruit is nature's candy," said Clem as she swallowed the sticky morsel. "Now I wish I could just eat fruit all the time."

"Me too." The girls immediately got another spoonful of tasty yellow goodness from the can and stuck them in their mouths. "Although the 'nature's candy' things always made sense to me; most candy is fruit-flavored."

"Not chocolate," noted Clem. "That was my favorite candy."

"We should get more from the store before we leave," said Sarah.

"We're already carrying a lot. I was thinking we could just come back tomorrow."

"I thought we could at least take one can when we leave, so Omid can have a treat this evening." Sarah popped the spoon back into her mouth. "Or maybe two, so we could have fruit for dinner."

"That's a good idea." Clem tried to scoop some more pineapple out of the can, but then stopped.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing…"

"Clem."

"It's just…" Clem sighed. "I thought I was good at this."

"Good at what?"

"You know, going out and getting things."

"You are."

"No, I'm not," realized Clem. "Back in Spokeston, there were like no walkers, so I could use that noisy shopping cart to move stuff, and all the houses were close to ours, and getting things was easy."

"Clem…"

"And I didn't know that, so I thought I knew what I was doing." Clem fished out a bit of pineapple. "But I don't. I don't know what I'm doing."

"You're only ten Clem," reminded Sarah. "You need to stop being so hard on yourself. You're still learning."

"Me learning almost got you killed earlier," reminded a downcast Clementine. "And now we got to carry back a bunch of heavy tools we didn't even use because I thought it was a good idea. But I didn't bring a can opener, the one thing we could have used."

"Like I said, we're learning," said Sarah. "What else can we do?"

"We could have gone with that woman." Clementine looked down at her feet. "But we didn't because I thought we'd be better on our own."

"Well… it's too late to change that now," reasoned Sarah. "Even if we went all the way back to that gas station, she wouldn't be there anymore, and she never told us where she's from."

"Yeah…"

"But we're okay for the moment, so let's learn from what we did today," suggested Sarah. "What can we do different next time?"

"Well, we shouldn't rush into a place we don't know about with the Brave," noted Clem. "Or rush in anywhere we don't have to. I should have already known that."

"Well, we know it now," said Sarah.

"It'd probably make more sense if one of us went ahead first to see what things are like," suggested Clem. "Like, just see where the food is first, and how many walkers there are, and where at. Then once we know what to do, we can come back with only the tools we need and get stuff without wasting time."

"Like a scout," said Sarah.

"Yeah, like… like that woman was…" Clem took a breath.

"That sounds like a good idea."

"But it'd be dangerous for whoever went though."

"Well, yeah, but that's true for everything now."

"Yeah, but this would be more dangerous, because you could run into anyone," explained Clem.

"I guess so, but—"

"I'll do it."

"Clem, I—"

"I don't know how to drive the Brave, so it makes more sense for me to do it. That way if something happens, you can still use the Brave to get away."

"If something happened I'd have to come after you," insisted Sarah.

"Then you can use the Brave to come after me. Either way, it makes more sense for me to go looking first," said Clem. "And if it's safe, we could use the Brave to get stuff quickly. If not, we can bring it back a little bit at a time."

"Or we could move it somewhere that's safe to take the Brave. Like, if we knew a way to get the Brave here without the lurkers hearing it, we could just leave our stuff behind and come back to pick it up with the Brave, and not have to carry it the whole way back."

"I could probably move stuff I find outside where it'd be easier to get too. Like at the gun store, if I had gone out on foot first, I could have just stacked up all the bullets and everything else we needed next to the street, then we could have driven the Brave right up to it, put it inside, then leave before the walkers even got close."

"We don't even have to take it inside the Brave. I could clear out some of the compartments on the side of the Brave and you could just put stuff in there, and not have to waste time trying to carry it up the stairs."

"Yeah, that's a great idea," said Clem. "I could take some bags and put everything in them beforehand, so instead of loading a bunch of little things I'd just have to throw a few bags in the Brave and leave. That'd only take a few seconds." Clementine looked at their stuffed backpacks sitting in the corner and sighed. "I just wish we had thought of it sooner."

The girls finished what little they had left in the can, taking great care to not waste even a drop of syrup, then reluctantly donned their gear and backpacks. Taking Sarah's suggestion, Clem located a couple more cans of fruit from the gas station and packed them away for later. There wasn't many left, but still more than enough to merit a return trip later. As Clementine finished zipping up her bag, she noticed Sarah was standing at the door, clutching her rifle.

"Are you—" Sarah made a shushing noise. "What is it?" whispered Clem.

"Do you hear that?" Listening carefully, Clem could just barely hear a noise from outside. It was distant at first, but it grew slowly closer until it became clear.

"Footsteps!" realized Clem.

"Whatta we do?" whispered Sarah, her voice dripping with terror. As the footsteps slowly drew nearer, Clementine pulled her gun and switched the safety off.

"Keep your rifle out, but keep it aimed towards the ground," whispered Clem. "We don't want to kill anyone if we don't have to."

"What if they have a gun too?"

"Just…" Clem tried to compose herself as the footsteps grew louder. They were making an odd clack against the pavement and sounded like they were moving quickly while somehow remaining relatively far away. "Just watch out for anyone else, I'll watch whoever this is in case… in case they do anything."

"I'll… I'll do my best," whispered a nervous Sarah, her rifle shaking in her hands.

"Okay, follow me." Clem carefully edged out of the building and scanned her surroundings as quickly as she could. No one in sight, but she could hear the footsteps more closely now, and they were approaching from the side of the building. Clem gestured to Sarah and the pair inched towards the corner as quietly as they could.

Those odd clacking footsteps made Clem feel sicker with every passing moment. Remaining close to the side of the buildings, backs glued to the wall, it became obvious this person was heading in their direction. It sounded like they were moving briskly but not running, which hopefully meant they didn't know where Clem and Sarah were.

The footsteps sounded so close now Clem could practically feel the strict rhythm of their movement in the pavement itself. They weren't moving away, which meant a confrontation was imminent. Clem tightened her grip on her pistol and looked to Sarah. The older girl's wide-eyed terror and trembling did nothing to ease Clem's mind, but the younger girl forced herself to nod as confidently as she could to her friend and found herself moving out from cover just as a shadow loomed out past the corner.

"Don't move!" Clem raised her gun and immediately found herself being shoved over by a blur of someone in brown rushing into her. They shoved Clem backwards with great force and knocked the girl onto her pack. Clem's pistol tumbled out of her hand and the girl scrambled across the pavement to get it before it was too late. She scooped up the gun as hastily as she could and spun around just in time to see her attacker racing off.

It was a large white-tailed deer with enormous antlers darting across the gas station at breakneck speed. Her adrenaline fading, Clem could hear those clacking sounds weren't footsteps but hooves moving across the asphalt. And as the startled animal raced across the road and into the field across from her, Clem found her fear quickly transforming into a sense of awe as she watched the deer gallop into the horizon and out of sight.

"Are you okay?" Clem felt a set of helpful hand at her sides as she stood up. Looking over at Sarah, Clem noticed a mutual sense of awe in the older girl's eyes.

"It… it was a deer," stated an astonished Clem.

"Yeah… it was," answered an equally astonished Sarah.

"I didn't know they came into towns," said Clem.

"I guess there're no people left to scare them away now," reasoned Sarah. "And it was a lot faster than any lurker."

"Yeah…" Clem turned back the horizon, envious of how quickly the deer had covered the distance in front of her. "It was." With the deer gone now and the wonder fading, the girl's began their long and tiresome trek back to the Brave. They found their way back to the highway without incident and settled in for a long walk.

With the sun going down, it was getting colder, which made the already tiring trip back even more exhausting. Thinking about what they had discussed, Clem found herself regretting not planning these expeditions out better from the start with every aching step she took. Ever since they were robbed, she had rushed through their supply runs as quickly as possible, fearful of someone finding her if she didn't, only to today realize she was making all new mistakes. And now, as she marched forward, the pain in her lower back was telling Clem she had made yet a different kind of mistake.

Sometime around sunset, Sarah pointed out the off-road that led to where they had hidden the Brave. Clem picked up the pace, or as much as she could. After a long day, she had barely the strength to keep walking. Even the fear that had so saturated her mind had given way to tedium as they marched down a dirt road through the forest. Again she found herself envious of the deer she had spotted and how freely and swiftly it moved. After what felt like an eternity, the Brave came into view.

"Oh thank God," Clem whispered to herself.

"I know," spoke an exhausted Sarah.

"I can't wait to take a bath and lie down for a while," said Clem.

"Me too. And to get something to eat," added Sarah. "Those pineapples were great, but—"

"But we've been moving around all day and could use a real meal," finished Clem.

"Totally." Sarah unlocked the door and the exhausted pair stepped inside. Clem locked the door behind them while Sarah dumped her backpack on the ground.

"Finally," she said as she pulled her respirator off. The two carefully stowed their raincoats, not wanting to slather the stench onto anything else, then hastily stripped off the rest of their equipment, mostly piling it onto the couch. "I thought we'd never get home." The older girl tossed off her knitting cap and removed her hair tie. Watching Sarah pull her hair out of its bun, Clem couldn't help thinking the older girl looked as haggard as Clem felt right now..

"I'm gonna check on Omid, he's gotta be hungry," said Sarah as she headed for the bedroom.

"Okay." Clem sat down and started untying her shoes, eager for some rest, and then she heard Omid shrieking from the bedroom. Springing up from her seat, Clem rushed after the noise. "What's wrong?" asked Clem.

"I'm not sure," answered Sarah as she tried to rock a screaming Omid in her arms. "Can you make him a bottle?"

"Right." Clem rushed back to the kitchen. She quickly scooped some formula into a bottle, mixed in some water, and shook it well as she raced back to the bedroom. "Here." Clem handed the bottle to Sarah.

"Thanks." Sarah tried to feed the bottle to Omid, but he knocked it away. "Come on Omid, open wide."

"Muh-buh-muh!" cried Omid as he shoved the bottle away again.

"He doesn't want it?" asked Clem. "He never doesn't want to eat."

"I already checked to see if he needs changing, so it's not that."

"Maybe he's hurt?" The girls examined Omid as carefully as they could, which was difficult to do with the boy flailing his arms around.

"I don't understand," said Sarah as she set Omid down in his crib. "What's wrong with him?"

"Wait, he's calming down." Clem watched as Omid seemed to settle slightly. He still looked upset, but wasn't crying out loud anymore. Clem bent down to pick him up but the second she touched him Omid started crying again. Clem pulled her arms back and the boy stopped crying again.

"He's crying… because we want to hold him?" asked Clem.

"It's like…" Sarah turned to Clem. "It's like he's mad at us."

"For leaving him alone for so long."

It took several minutes of comforting reassurance before Omid would even let the girl's hold him again without crying, and several minutes more of rocking before he finally seemed to move from upset to merely unhappy. With further coaxing, they managed to convince Omid to drink his bottle, which seemed to finally calm him, if not quite appease him.

After that the girls had to organize and store all their equipment, doing so in shifts so as one could always stay with Omid. Stacking the boxes of ammo, stowing the cleaning tools she had taken, and finding space for the binoculars amongst the increasingly crowded cupboards all just made Clem even more tired.

Setting the sharpening stones inside, Clem realized she didn't even know how to use them yet. Looking at the packaging, it had instructions on it, but just trying to read them made Clem weary, thinking it was just one more thing she'd have to practice at. And practice she would as there was no ignoring how dull her tomahawk looked before she put it up.

After getting everything sorted and stored, the tired twosome were more than ready for dinner. Their options were limited, having had little success in the last few days in finding anything to eat, but eventually they decided on sharing a can of white hominy. Neither of them really liked white hominy, but they had to eat something and splitting a can of mixed fruits for dessert helped to make dinner more satisfying. They also broke out an instant flavor packet to turn their water into something mildly enjoyable.

Before they finished eating they stopped to offer Omid some of the fruit. The boy seemed hesitant, but only until he tasted it. Then they couldn't keep him from sticking his hands into the can to collect up what was left of the syrup. Sarah also poured some of the flavored water into a sippy cup. It took a lot of coaxing and help, but eventually Omid figured out how to get a drink from it, and seemed to enjoy the sweetened water as he took his first sip from that cup.

After cleaning up, Clem stayed with Omid while Sarah took a bath. Unlike earlier, now Omid didn't want Clem to stop holding him, which made it awkward anytime Clem tried to set him in his crib to sleep for the night. Clementine herself was exhausted, but she couldn't rest until Omid fell asleep.

As Clem rocked the baby in her sore arms, the sound of approaching footsteps managed to shake Clem out of her trance for a minute. Standing in the doorway was Sarah, hunched over and with half-shut eyes. She shuffled over to the bed and sat down next to Clem, then continued to sit quietly for several seconds before she opened her mouth to speak.

"How is he?" she mumbled.

"I think he's finally asleep." Clem walked over to the crib. She moved to set Omid in it, only for him to start crying softly as she let go of him. "Never mind." Clem sighed and picked up Omid.

"Here, I'll take him." Clem carefully passed Omid to Sarah, then rubbed her tired arms.

"We didn't mean to leave him so long," reasoned Clem.

"He didn't know that though," mumbled Sarah as she rocked Omid in her arms. "All he knew was he needed us, and nobody came to help him when he cried. That's why he was upset, because he thought no one would ever come."

"That's… that's horrible," realized Clem.

"I know," said Sarah. "I can't imagine what that's like."

"I can." Sarah looked at Clem. "That's what it was like before Lee found me, when I just wanted my parents to come home, and they never were, and I felt so alone… and helpless." Clem looked at Omid, breathing softly in Sarah's arms. "I'm sorry OJ, I'm so sorry."

"He probably doesn't want to go to sleep because he wants to stay close to us," realized Sarah.

"You were right, we shouldn't have left him," said Clem. "I messed up, again."

"I messed up too," said Sarah. "I knew it wasn't a good idea to leave him but I came anyway because I figured just once wouldn't be too bad."

"Well, we're never going to leave him again." Clem leaned in close to Omid. "We're not going to leave you again OJ, I promise." Clementine kissed the half-asleep boy on his forehead. "I love you."

"I love you too Omid," added Sarah in a whisper. "Why don't you go take your bath?" Sarah said to Clem. "I can watch him."

"Thanks." Clem shuffled into the bathroom, stumbling through her evening routine of brushing her teeth and cleaning herself up. Looking at herself in the mirror, she had never seen herself so tired. Barely able to stand or keep her eyes open, her hair a sprawling, wet, tangled mess; she looked almost like the living dead herself. Yet she didn't care, in fact, she was just eager to return to the bedroom. There she found Sarah tip-toeing away from Omid's crib.

"He just fell asleep," whispered Sarah.

"Thank God." Clem stumbled towards the bed, clumsily undressing as she did. She didn't even have the energy to put her clothes away, just leaving them where they hit the ground before flopping onto the bed. She lay there for a moment before she felt Sarah flop onto the mattress next to her. The girls slowly rolled onto their backs and pulled the covers over themselves. As Clem set a pillow under her head, a thought popped into her mind.

"Sarah?" spoke Clem in a quiet voice.

"Yeah?" mumbled Sarah through her pillow.

"Let's use this place to practice."

"I thought we just did?"

"I mean, for the next few days. We'll work on all the stuff we talked about and get whatever food that was left behind. Okay?"

Clementine waited anxiously for an answer. "Okay," shrugged a half-asleep Sarah.

"Then we fill up on diesel and go way down into Florida, where it won't be too cold. If we find somewhere with walkers we might find somewhere people left food, and then we might get enough to do it."

Sarah rolled over and looked at Clem. "Do what?"

"Thanksgiving," said Clem. "If we're ever going to wean OJ, we're going to need enough food where he won't need formula anymore, and that means we'll need to get a lot. And… I want more for us too."

Sarah blinked her eyes. "I do too." Sarah rolled onto her back and Clem took a breath; eager to fall asleep, but hesitant to face tomorrow.