Chapter 28- The Thought Of Home
3 days later
Clementine had zipped up the last of the backpacks.
"Finally..." she breathed out in relief.
Four large backpacks had been filled to the brim with supplies found around the warehouse. Food, water, medicine, weapons and spare clothes had been picked clean from the many shelves that Clementine had spent the last hard three days climbing upon.
Clementine couldn't help but to grin in satisfaction.
For only three days, Clementine was exhausted but proud of what she had achieved while Nick, Luke and Shel rested. The three's health were improving. They were battered and bruised, scarred in the mind but alive. And that was all that mattered.
As Nick didn't want Clementine to have to deal with the bodies, he pulled his sore body off from the ground and dealt with the fallen himself. No matter how many times Clementine protested to stop Nick from injuring himself further, he would brush the young girl off.
"You shouldn't have to deal with these things, Clementine." Nick would put simply.
Clementine would pout, but inside she knew that she was indeed shaken when it came to handling any of the bodies. Even placing a blanket or a dust sheet over their lifeless skin was enough to frighten her.
Instead, she took up the job of getting the supplies packed. It sounds quite simple, but it was actually difficult as she wanted to find as many supplies as possible to take. The warehouse was huge, and inside the hall were endless rows of shelves, ten times the height of Clementine. And yes, she climbed them all in order to make sure she left nothing worth taking behind.
She couldn't understand why two men (Carver and Troy) would have such a large supply of items. They took the majority from the people they tortured, but it didn't seem to add up considering the amount of food or weapons that there were in the hall... Maybe this was a community once?
But the past didn't matter any more. Even without the torture, life would still be all about survival and sacrifice. Now, the four would just have to move on no matter how much it hurt. Physically and mentally.
Speaking of moving on, Nick, Luke and Shel were capable of moving properly again. They tried their hardest to hurry up the amount of 'healing' time they got, for they didn't want to stay in this slaughter house any longer than they should. Clementine was more than relived to find out that they were heading back to the cabin that Nick and Luke came from. Hopefully, fingers crossed no one would be taking refuge there. After all, the emptiness and the unlocked doors screamed 'Welcome!' to any passer-by's.
"Last one!" Clementine sighed in relief, a great sense of triumph washing over her as she placed the last heavy backpack on the ground in front of Nick, Luke and Shel.
"Great! Thank you Clementine!" Shel cheered happily as she eyed all four backpacks in front of her. She was most grateful for the young girls work over the past few days.
Clementine smiled. "No problem." she replied, throwing herself on the ground next to Shel, her legs exhausted from all the work they had been doing.
"You really didn't have to, I would've-" Nick started to apologise but Clementine was quick to shut the black haired man up.
"No, it's fine! You couldn't anyway..." Clem explained, still smiling as Luke and Shel chuckled to themselves.
"My back is fine Clementine, I still could've helped..." Nick replied. The familiar wash of guilt struck him again.
"Putting a shirt on wasn't going to magically make you invincible, Nick." Clementine retorted jokingly.
"I never said-"
"She's joking man." Luke said to the confused black haired man.
Nick sighed.
"Children, they're confusing..." Nick muttered in which the others laughed quietly.
"You're stubborn." Clementine added.
"Oh yeah? Look who's talkin'!" Nick shot back, however he lightly chuckled when Clementine stuck out her tongue.
"God, I miss laughter. We're in the middle of a hell hole but look at us, we keep each other together." Shel spoke. She was grateful but at the same time still shaken over the situation.
"We just have to forget and get back to our normal lives..." Luke added sadly.
"Normal lives?" Nick questioned.
"Well, it looks like our normal lives is surviving, dealing with the shit the world out of nowhere just threw on us." Luke explained, in which the others nodded their heads in understanding.
"I rather deal with what's out there rather than what's in here..." Nick mentioned, thinking back to all who died in the exact hall that they sit in.
"We're leaving soon, right?" Shel asked curiously.
"If we can make today, then yeah." Nick replied.
"Just after dusk? It's probably around five in the morning now..." Shel said.
"If that suits you guys." Nick explained, looking around at the faces of the group.
"Suits me." Luke replied.
"Me too." Shel added.
"Me three." Clementine also answered. The three adults smiled at the young girl.
"Great, lets get ready." Nick announced, satisfied with the plan so far.
The four peeled their achy bodies off from the concrete ground and went to sort themselves out.
"I hope we'll make it to the cabin safely." Shel spoke, in which Clementine looked up at the short haired woman.
"We will." Clementine reassured.
Shel smiled down at the young girl.
"I'm glad you're here, Clementine." she said quietly as she knelt down to pick up one of the heavy backpacks. She chose a mustard yellow coloured one and slung it onto her back. Before that however, Shel had pulled on a dark blue gilet jacket that Clementine had found for her. It fit snuggly and Shel was more than grateful.
Meanwhile, Nick walked slowly over to Luke who wandered off behind some shelves.
Nick wondered constantly about how Luke was feeling, something about his friend just seemed off. Without any further hesitation, Nick made his way over to Luke.
"Hey, you alright?" Nick questioned towards the brunette who turned around to face him, not expecting company just yet.
"Ni-Nick, hey...I'm fine." Luke stammered, however he cleared his throat and kept a straight face just in case Nick got suspicious.
"You sure? It's the whole Carver thing isn't it?" Nick asked. He kept his voice calm as he could fully understand why Luke may still feel paranoid, after all he did as well.
"Nah, just a little sore ya know." Luke replied, his voice clearly shaky as he pulled a brave face.
Nick sadly smiled. "You're healing up okay, you sure you're fine?" Nick questioned again.
"Ye-yeah, just...we should get ready." Luke said, turning back around and attempting to walk back towards where Shel and Clementine were happily talking.
"I know, in a sec." Nick stubbornly spoke, walking in front of Luke and almost forcing the other man to look straight at him, in which Luke did nervously.
"Nick..." Luke whispered.
"Luke, tell me." Nick demanded, his voice was warming to Luke's ears but even his best friend couldn't help him.
"Nick, it's just a little traumatising..." Luke finally explained.
Nick placed a cold hand on Luke's shoulder, in which the brunette flinched slightly but then soon after relaxed his muscles.
"It's okay, we all went through it..." Nick reassured.
Luke looked straight at Nick, he didn't want to feel weak...
"Di-did they do it...to you?" Luke hesitantly questioned. His palms felt sweaty as he clutched his hands together, his nails digging into his bruised skin.
Nick took a deep breath.
He knew exactly what Luke was talking about and even three days later it didn't seem real.
A rag doll Luke was, a rag doll they all were...
"No, they didn't. I, I heard Carver saying something about how I wouldn't be as 'fun' as, as you..." Nick explained sorrowfully. He gripped Luke's shoulder slightly tighter to reassure his friend that he was still here for him.
"God... it's humiliating, fucking humiliating. I was 'pretty boy' to them." Luke muttered, so quietly it was barely audible to Nick's ears.
"I know, I know Luke. But this doesn't make you weak, you're strong dammit, you're hell of lot stronger than I am!" Nick spoke, shaking Luke lightly.
Luke bit the inside of his mouth, and without himself realising a single tear made it's way down his cheek.
"Nick, you don't know what you have done for us. I should be asking you if you're okay, but no... I'm fucking selfish." Luke explained miserably.
"St-stop Luke." Nick commanded, blinking back a tear that was close to falling from his own eye.
Luke looked up slowly and before he knew it, his best friend pulled him in for a tight hug.
Both men grunted slightly as their bodies made contact. Their bones were still quite fragile after all...
"Th-thanks Nick, for coming back..." Luke gratefully but quietly spoke into Nick's shirt.
"Thanks for not giving up, you sure as hell have fire in you." Nick chuckled into Luke's shirt. (Or more like his new one given to him by Clementine.)
"None of us gave up, some just couldn't take it altogether." Luke muttered in return.
"Ye-yeah, sadly that's true..." Nick replied before releasing his hold on Luke.
The two men just stood in silence for a few moments before the sound of Shel's voice echoed the hall.
"Nick? Luke? You ready?" Shel called out, her voice still cracked slightly when she tried to speak louder. All the screaming from when Carver and Troy were still alive had a effect on her now...
"Coming..." Nick called back.
...
Nick breathed out a breath that he felt he'd been holding for a long time.
"C'mon, we have a cabin to get back too." Nick said, in which Luke smiled up at his raven-haired friend.
"Couldn't agree more." he replied.
