Episode 5: Too Far Gone ~Trailer~
A/N- For a little bit of ambiance, play The Walking Dead Season 3 Soundtrack - The Pulse on a second tab while reading this. Enjoy :) The Final Episode will be coming soon...
It was a distant memory but maybe this was a dream instead...
The dream was so steady and vivid, like watching a movie in a dark theater, it made her cry when she found her clothes covered in blood and guts. It only took up until now that she noticed she was walking the quiet halls of the Marsh House, and her savior Lee was right beside her, she'd knew he'd never leave her...
"Lee...?" She whimpered up to one-armed man, who wasn't looking so good at all. But she needed to ask this before they went outside and out into the horde. She could already hear the thousands of moans from where they were at.
"What's the matter, sweet pea?" Lee kindly replied, thinking that she must be very scared right about now.
The sun was shining and the lighthouse could be seen in the distance near the horizon. Dusty and Clementine were in the middle of woods, walking down a path until they stopped by a bench in the middle of a nature park. "Sit down Clem... I need to talk to you."
"About what?" The little girl inquired as they both sat side by side on the aged wood.
"I have to tell you something... something serious. You're getting to that age where someone needs to make sure you know this." Dusty confided in her, and the burned man look dead into her eyes, staring intently.
"Dusty?"
He clasped both of his hands on her scrawny shoulders. "You are not safe..."
"That man back there..." That Stranger Clem was referring to. "He said that he didn't have my parents but he wanted to... have a family with me. But that wouldn't work right? Because he took me?"
Lee sighed deeply. "Yeah, you're right Clem. And I was coming back for you." He gave her a half-hug with his remaining arm.
Clementine was still trying to figure this out. "I know he was mad at you, so he took me... to hurt you?"
"That's part of it, yeah." Lee nodded as they came to the dim staircase, and they were heading to the bottom floor. Not long now until they were going to be enamored into a sea of death.
"Then what was the other part?"
"What do you mean I'm not safe?" Clem raised an eyebrow. "We have shelter, friends, food. What about the-!"
Dusty looked sadly at her when he cut her off. "Clementine, I'm talking about yourself." He revealed to her. "You have to understand that you can always be a danger to yourself! Look, we're all human Clem, we've all made mistakes, and we're all going to die." He closed his own eyes at the news he was delivering. "But it's the choices, OUR CHOICES... that still matter in how we get there... whether it's tomorrow, or fifty years from now."
"That man back there Clem, he lost the one thing that mattered most to him in this world. His family." Lee told her as he opened the door for her and they entered the lobby of the hotel.
"So he was sad... and then he got angry? Like Lilly and...!"
Suddenly the dream got all static-like and the screen skipped over months ahead. Now Clementine was sitting on a log in the middle of the woods, with Christa tending a campfire with a weasel skewered on top. "Christa?"
The woman only spared a glance and coldly rebuked her. "This'll never work..."
Ever since Omid died, Christa looked at Clementine differently, instead of a little girl to care for, she was just an obligation she saw under that 'D' cap on her head. A promise she kept to Lee all that time ago, she blamed her for what happened, and it was rare to treat her with the utmost compassion, but she was still teaching her to survive.
It hurt so much... It hurt her so much that he was gone, that her baby was gone...
Hurt, pain, suffering... something we all experience, however when we react, when we grieve, we're all our own person.
"I know, Dusty." Clementine nodded at him. "I've heard that before, I've lost people too."
He shook his head at her. "This is different though."
"How is it different?"
"Because I know!" Dusty told her sternly. "I know what it's like, you and I know that shooting people changes ya... and when you lose people. But there's a step beyond that."
"What do you mean?" She looked at him worriedly.
...
"If you don't have people to pull you back, then you're just gone... there's no turning around, there's no second chances, it's just a dark abyss in hell, a hell that you created for yourself..." Those words emanated. "You can't be one of those people that doesn't want to be brought back! Not you, not ever! You can't be too far gone."
Michael and Hazen continued to argue about where to draw the line between morality and survival, shouting at each other at the base of the lighthouse.
Hazen exclaimed at him. "You don't get to berate me for what I've done just to stay alive! You have no right!"
"I have every fucking right to say that you're a monster, you're a fucking murderer, and a goddamn cannibal!" Michael roared back.
He seethed at him. "I bet you were real nice and comfortable back in Wellington, all that food, water, shelter, and the good people! When I had to sleep in the fucking dirt, wondering if I was going to wake up dead!" Hazen spited with malice. "I'm so sorry that you got your daddy back, even though you act like you hate him."
"Fuck you Hazen!"
"Goddamn you Michael!" He yelled back at him with a push. "The world didn't care that I was cold and starving! The world doesn't care whether you're good or you're bad! The only thing that this world cares about is survival! To do whatever it takes! Whether you're weak or you're strong!"
"That's not how it works!" The fourteen year old solemnly denied the declaration. "Surviving just to survive! There's no point then!"
"But those are the people that have inherited the Earth..." Hazen declared to him. "You're not always right Michael, even though you think you are."
"Kenny?" Clementine rounded the corner of the Bed n' Breakfast to find the bearded man and AJ sitting on the living room couch in front of the lit fireplace. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm fine darlin' " He quickly assured her as he patted the seat next to him and she climbed up and sat herself down. "Shh shh, it's alright Alvie, big sister is here... here you go, think he wants ya." He handed the baby over to the little girl's arms which she gratefully accepted.
"Hey AJ," Clementine teased with a cheeky grin. "You giving Kenny a hard time?"
The bearded man chuckled at that as Alvin Junior blinked up at them owlishly. "He's already picking favorites here. Guess I'm outnumbered now."
"Aw... we won't forget about you Kenny." The little girl smiled back at him. "Right Alvie?" He cooed in agreement.
Kenny smiled at the two, thankful he still had these two wonderful kids in his life. "Once we wait our piece, it'll be like heaven for us Clem, I know it. Come Springtime, and they'll have to let us in. They just gotta."
"You're right." She nodded at that. "We can't just give up hope."
"That's the spirit darlin'." He commended.
...
