(Violets Pov)
As I cut Clems' leg blood was pouring out and she began to scream in pain as AJ tried his best to hold her down, I stopped and pushed her back down a bit and she looked at me with tears in her eyes and I looked at her more.
"I'm almost done, just a few more and it'll be done ok?" I asked and she nods a bit as she lays back again and I go back and cut a few more times, she screams again but doesn't move I look to her hand and see her Knuckles have turned white and I look to AJ as he cried and I finished up.
"The knife." I said and he ran to get it and I looked at Clem as I moved her now severed leg off the mattress. AJ came back in and handed me the knife and he held Clem down once more and I placed the burning red blade to her open wound and I almost gaged at the burning flesh smell. She screamed again and again as I closed the wound as best as I could. Once done she had passed out and I began to grab a clean shirt and I wrapped it on Clems' stump. I worked on her other wounds too as she slept, I rubbed her head a bit from the sweat and I looked to AJ as he held Clementine's hand in his.
"She's going to be ok right?' He asked and I nod. I hope so, god I hope so.
"Y-Yea, she'll be fine." I mumbled as I looked to her, he left and got a clean cloth and had it dampened by the water and I placed it on her head gently as I rubbed the back of her head a bit.
"She came back…. Louis was wrong and he left." AJ said and I looked to him.
"AJ not now just…. Uh…. Find something for Clem to eat, maybe cut the apples up for her?" I suggested and he nods as he goes and grabs two apples and I go back to the door and barricade it once more and I looked to her as she laid on the mattress. I saw AJ go over to her and sit by her and I went over to them and grabbed Clems' severed leg and I almost gaged as I took it outside and threw it behind the fence so she couldn't see it when she woke up. I went back inside and rubbed my face a bit as I watched AJ talk to her.
"And Violet taught me this cool trick where you boil water to make it good to drink, we can stay here to, this was Violets old home, before the Walkers, we worked on the fence to, well mostly Mom but I tried to help, we made a garden too there's apples, you said you loved apples." AJ says and I go over to him and I sit in the recliner as he looked up at me and I looked down at him a bit and rubbed his head.
"You bothering Clem?" I asked.
"No, just telling her what we've done so far." He says and leans in a bit.
"I didn't tell her the others left though." He whispers and I nod a bit.
"We can tell her when she wakes up and is healthy." I said and he nods a bit. I get up from the recliner and lay it back and I grab a pillow and blanket and I look at AJ.
"Alright, I got watch tonight, you need to sleep." I said as I set the pillow on the head of the chair and he looked at me.
"But."
"Nope, you want to be wide awake for Clementine, right?' I asked and he nods and slowly gets in the chair and I cover him up. Yea he's old enough to do it himself but come on.
"Night." He says and I nod.
"Night." I said and I watched him as he slept. I looked down at Clementine as I rubbed her head gently as she sweat.
'God, I hope I got the wound in time, fuck how long ago did you get bit?' I thought as I wet the rag again and placed it on her head. I watched her chest rise and fall with every breath she took and I kept a watchful eye on her just in case. It was hours before the sun rose up and I watched it as it came through the windows and I looked back down to Clementine as she squinted her eye a bit from the sun, so I gently took the wet rag and placed in on her good eye so the sun wouldn't bother her anymore.
"Is she awake?' I heard and looked to AJ.
"No, she's not buddy…... hey I need you to watch her while I go into town to get more medicine, can you do that?" I asked and he looked at me.
"Don't get bit."
"I know."
"Kill any bad guys." He says as I look to him and I nod a bit.
"Alright, what else?" I asked.
"Come home safe." He says and I nod a bit as I grab my bag and my rifle and I feel him hug me and I hug him back with my free arm. He held me pretty tight and I look down at him as I rubbed his head a bit.
"Be safe." He says and I nod.
"Same for you, and keep an eye on Clem, don't open the door and don't go outside till I get back." I said and he nods. I head out the back so the front could stay barricaded good, not that AJ couldn't keep it up it's just easier this way. I head out the fence and lock it then I start the walk into town, it took a good while before I hit major city areas, but I got there quicker than normal. I headed to the pharmacy and went through the back. I listened for any movement, but didn't hear anything so I slowly opened the door and looked in a bit. There was nothing at the moment but I kept my guard up as I walked inside and closed the door but had it opened just a bit. I looked around the store for anything good, I found a few energy bars here and there along with extra bandages in the back office. There was some medicine to reduce fever which was great luck for Clementine, and there were also some coloring books too. So, I grabbed a few and placed all the items in my bag. I looked around some more and found a first aid kit bag so I opened it only to find nothing, but that's fine at least we have the bag to put medical supplies in.
"Not much here but it's a pretty good hall." I said to myself and I got out the store. I looked down the roads a bit and I saw a few vehicles, we had tried to start them but they didn't work the batteries were dead as fuck and I let Louis and them have the portable charger just in case. I looked around more and saw a motorcycle and I looked at it a bit. I remember my neighbor having one once, maybe they have it still locked up in their shed.
"Alright, time to head back." I said and headed back to my old home. I looked around the town a bit more though as I walked back. Memories of this place came flooding back, god I hated most of these memories, Kids at school would see me and bully me because I wore my dad's old hand me downs, or I couldn't go into the fancy smancy stores here, well fuck them, they're all gone probably, fucking pricks. I finally was able to get home and I saw a few walkers by our fences so I grabbed my knife and snuck up on them. I stabbed on in the head and the other two groaned as they saw me. I backed up a bit as I took one of the Walkers legs out and stabbed it like Clementine had showed me once before. The other walker grabbed my hand and I yanked it back a bit, I grunted as I tried to pull back away from the walker but it had a tight grip so I took its' knee out and stabbed it in the head with the knife. It went down and I kicked the thing off me and I glared at it. I shook my head a bit as I sighed and I opened the gate and closed it then locked it, as I did that, I saw AJ poke his head in the window view and I nodded a bit as he came out.
"She woke up a few times while you were gone, but she went back to sleep when I told her to." He said and I nod a bit.
"Alright, good job…. Did anyone come by?" I asked and he shook his head.
"No, no one came by." He says and I nod and look at the fence more.
"Ok, I'm going to work on that side of the fence a bit, you just keep an eye on Clem, if you want you can open the door so some cool air can get in, it's hot as hell." I said and he nods. I head to the trailer and I set my bag down and I grab the coloring books for him and he smiled a bit.
"I know you think you're to old but, hey even older kids color from time to time." I said and he nods.
"It's because you don't want me to work on the fence." He says.
"not entirely, I just need you to keep an eye on Clem for me, that's all." I said and he nods.
"Ok, I'll watch her." He says and I nod as he grabs the book gently and I go grab the tools and I get to work on the right side of the trailer park fence. To be honest I didn't think I would be this good at building a wall, even if it's just something like this for a short time, until we can get good material, or unless we have to leave at least it could buy us some time, not a lot but some. I worked and worked till the sun was high up into the sky so around noon time. I took a bit of a break as I went inside and I grabbed a bottle of water and looked at Clementine as she moved a bit. I went over to her as AJ watched her a bit and went back to coloring a bit then back to her, I sat by her and I wet the rag a bit and saw her eye open and I smiled a bit.
"Hey Darling." I said and she looked at me.
"H-Hey." She says and I help sit her up as she tries to get up. I sit behind her and AJ looks at us a bit and I hand Clem the bottle of water and she drink just little by little.
"You ok?" AJ asked an she nods.
"Just… tired and uh." She says and goes quiet.
"You in any pain?" I asked and nods a bit. AJ goes to the bag and brings it over and I grab some medicine for her.
"No, I'm good." She says.
"No, you aren't now take the damn medicine." I said as she moved my hand away and I look at her.
"Clementine." I said.
"I'm fine." She says.
"You had your leg taken off, take the medicine." AJ says to her.
"I'm good, I don't need it." She says again.
"Hey, we have more than enough so don't pull this shit like you did at the school." I said and she looks at me a bit and sighs as she takes the medicine and swallows them with the water. I rub her back a bit and she looks at her stump and shakes her head.
"Fuck I… I didn't even know." She mumbled a bit and I rub her back more.
"Um…. God, I don't know what to say for this." I said as I look at her then at the floor.
"You hungry?" AJ asked.
"A bit yea." She says quietly and AJ goes and grabs her a few apple slices and hands them to Clementine and she eats them slowly. I rubbed her back a bit as we just settle in a bit. I look as AJ grabs some more apple slices and we all eat and I look at her a bit and she looks at me.
"How have you two been?" She asked quietly.
"We… we've been fine." I said.
"Where are the others?" She asked.
"They left." AJ says and she looks at him then me.
"Look… I wanted to stay here but Louis had other ideas, we talked about it long before you got here." I said.
"You let him decide?" She asked.
"No… I made the others go so he wouldn't do anything stupid, but they said they were heading to Florida, they'll leave signs if they move anywhere with this symbol." I said as I leaned to the side and grabbed the paper with the symbol she drew long ago.
"Fuck….. ok…. Ok, as long as they do that, we're good." She says quietly and I nod a bit.
"Rosie went too?" She asked and we nodded.
"Yea, she'll keep Louis and them in line." AJ said and I chuckled a bit.
"Um…. Ok so we need to find a vehicle and something for you." I said and looked at Clem.
"I'll be fine, crutches." She says and I nod.
"I'll find a foot book somewhere." AJ said.
"Heheh, ok, go find me the foot book." She joked with him and I looked at her as I moved her hair out of her face. I watched as AJ nodded and grabbed some paper and wrote down another item on the list, and I hugged Clem.
"Hm? I'm ok Vi." She says in my neck as she leans back a bit. I hold her to me.
"Jesus fuck I was so scared that I fucked up or… or." I tried to say but I felt her kiss my cheek.
"You did good, you did really good…. And AJ too." She mumbled a bit and I nod.
"Yea he did good." I mumbled a bit.
"Fuck my leg itches but…. There's nothing to scratch." She mumbled and I wanted to chuckle but this was serious. I grabbed her hand gently and rubbed it so she would keep her thoughts off of the supposed itch. I saw AJ come back with a book and I watched him.
"Look Clem, Violet's been letting me read her books, I can read chapter books now." He says and I smile a bit and I see her smiling too.
"I'm uh… getting a bit tired." She says quietly and I nod as I help lay her down gently and I grabbed the bloody sheets off the bed and I covered her in a blanket as she closed her eye and I looked at AJ who looked a bit sad.
"Hey it's fine, the medicine is making her sleepy." I said and he nods a bit as we head outside and I get back to work on the fence. He helped me for a bit and we talked about random things here and there.
"That cloud looks like the beach ball I found." He says and I look up from my work and I see the cloud he's looking at and I chuckle.
"You blew it up even though you said it was gross." I commented and he looked at me.
"Yea, it was gross…. Do you have any toys?" he asked and I looked at him and thought a bit and nodded.
"Yea, you know I don't like baseball but, that's cause my grandfather loved it." I said as I took him to the side of the trailer and opened up a panel.
"Wait, check for monsters." He said and I looked at him and I listen a bit and hear nothing and I finish opening it up and I see my old plastic box inside and I go in. AJ follows me and I open the lid of the box and inside is a baseball, a glove, a bat, and many other toys that I got from my grandfather. I grabbed the ball and looked at AJ and he looked at the ball and I smile.
"Let's play some catch hu?" I asked and he nods as we each grab a glove. I grabbed my grandfathers since my old glove is a bit small for me. We head outside and I close the panel as AJ runs out into the gravel road and I follow him. I toss the ball into the air a bit and I look at him as he looked at the glove and I helped him put it on.
"So, to catch the ball you need to use the glove, it's kind of to protect your hand a bit if I throw the ball to hard for you, but don't worry I won't." I said and I showed him how to catch the ball in the glove and where he should have the glove unless otherwise.
"So, I throw the ball with my other hand not the gloved hand?" he asked and I nodded.
"Yep, you ready?' I asked and he nods. I back up a bit and I toss the ball to him. He misses and goes after the ball and throws it back to me, I have to move up a bit in order to catch it but I do, I then toss the ball back and he misses again. H grabbed the ball and threw it at me and I caught it and I smile at him.
"Why do you make it look so easy?" He asked and I looked at him as I tossed the ball back but this time, he caught it and I clapped for him.
"Takes practice buddy, but trust me, there will be times when I miss the ball." I said as he tossed it back and I caught it. We played for a bit and he was laughing and having fun.
"Did you play this a lot?" he asked.
"All the time with my grandfather…. Before he died, we use to play this a lot, along with my dad, it was the happiest we all had been, was when…... he was alive." I said and tossed the ball back to AJ.
"I'm sorry I didn't mean to bring up any bad memories." He said as he tossed the ball back to me and I caught it and rolled the ball around in my free hand.
"No, it's fine I liked that memory…. It was so nice." I said and looked at him.
"And now I get to make memories with you and two." I said and tossed the ball.
"I like this." He said as he tossed the ball back to me and I caught it and looked at him.
"I do too…. AJ…. Do you want to stay here? Or would you like to go one day?" I asked.
"I want to stay, like it was at the farm but… that doesn't always happen…. And I want the others to be here too but…. They left." He said and I looked at him as I tossed the ball back.
"I know… I know." I said quietly and looked at him.
"But I like it here, I mean I can help with the wall and do what I normally would do, and I'm reading too, plus we're having fun an doing things that make you happy right?" he asked and I nodded.
"Of course." I said.
"So, we can stay here for as long as we can, if we have to leave, we can come back, just like the school, the house in Georgia, the farm." He said and I looked at him a bit.
"…. AJ, I want you to remember all the places we go, that way when older you can visit the places, we have been…. Places that make you happy or…. Where people you know are buried." I said and he looked at me.
"Will you visit your mom and dad?" He asked as I looked to him.
"I will, yes…. If we ever have time to come back here after we had to leave, I'll come back for a bit." I said and he looked at me as I tossed the ball back to him.
"I promise to visit you a lot." He said and I looked at him and nodded.
"Clem's going to need a lot of help now." I said.
"We'll help her."
"Of course."
"You still love her, right?" he asked and I looked at him socked.
"Of course, I do AJ." I said.
"That's good…. I didn't mean to be rude about it." He said quietly and I looked at him.
"I know…. I'll never stop loving her…. Or you for that matter, you two are what's important to me, you and Clem are my family now." I tell him and he nods a bit as I look at him.
"You'll never leave us?" he asked and I came up to him and got to his level and he hugs me and I hug him back.
"Don't leave us ok?" he asked and I nodded.
"I won't I promise buddy." I say.
"But you can't promise that… that's the bad part." He says and I look at him.
"What if you get bit, or… or I can't save you, or anything bad happens like Clem." He cries more and I hug him tighter to not hurt him.
"AJ…. I know you won't like to hear this; God I hate having to say this to you, a kid your age should never have to hear this." I said and he moved away a bit and looked at me.
"AJ… don't try to save me, you take care of Clementine first, no matter what she says you listen to me and don't save me…. Fuck if you have to let the walkers fucking eat me if that gives you and Clem time to get away, now promise me that ok?" I said and he looked at me with wide eyes.
"Violet."
"I know this sounds so fucking bad but please for me…. AJ, I want you and Clementine to be safe, so you take care of her ok? Please just promise me that one thing, that if the time ever comes…. You get Clem and go…. Don't play hero to save me in any way because…. God if anything happened to you or her…. I…. I don't know what I would do without either of you." I tell him and he nods gently.
"O….Ok…..I…." He tried to say but he looked at me.
"AJ." I said and he looked at me.
"Just…. Nod ok, you just have to nod." I said and he does and I nod back and hold him to me.
