AN: Hey all! Just wanted to start off by responding to some of the reviews that I've been neglecting along the past few weeks (particularly guests since I can't PM you, but also to some of the authors from the last chapter).
Aqua – We're gonna explore this in more detail in the later chapters, and I don't want to give too much away, but you're definitely on the right track :) Thanks for reviewing!
Galen: I'm gonna keep that in mind lol. You've got a good point there – Lee and Clem must've had the slipperiest hands of all time XD
Guest 1: Thank you, thank you, thank you! That's exactly what I was trying to convey here: that the three of them aren't good guys, and have been going through so much loss, heartache and emotional shit that they're selfishly trying to cling onto the scraps that they have left. I've been sort of trying to build on this idea over the course of this story, actually.
Savage Angel Fury: Aww, thanks for the compliment :) A big majority of the OCs in this story were given to me by some very generous people on this site, and I don't think this story would be getting quite this amount of feedback without them. So thanks to all of you guys for making my tiny idea of Jane, Lilly and Clem evolve into so much more!
Lastly, I just wanted to address something that a few people have been pointing out. No, I don't hate Kenny. Did I find some of his actions questionable? Sure, no doubt. Did I always agree with the guy? No, in fact a lot of my second playthrough of season 2 involved siding with Jane on a lot of points just to see how Clem's relationship with him would change. Personally I don't really think it changed that much at all, but still.
I didn't make a story with Lilly and Jane – arguably two of the guy's main rivals – out of spite. I just thought that those two deserved some more spotlight, and a chance to see what might've happened if they were to ever meet up. It more than likely won't ever happen in the game, so this is all I have to fill the gap XD
I'm not Kenny's biggest supporter, obviously, but I'm not gonna constantly bash him or claim that he's a terrible character. Because he ISN'T a bad character. He's actually one of the more memorable ones in the game, and rightly so. But the whole concept of "Jane vs. Kenny" is fucking ridiculous. Just pick your ending, and don't shit on other people for not choosing the one you like.
Alright, enough droning from me. Here's the next chapter!
Clem's POV
"You've killed lots of things now," I had pointed out, having held onto the belief that he was doing what was necessary. "It doesn't even matter."
"…killing is bad no matter what."
I remember being so confused as Lee was snipping away at my ebony, curly locks – possibly taking the last few strands of my childhood away too as the train kept rolling on towards the Georgia coastline. Killing was still… bad? If it was, then why was he still doing it? I never understood where we were supposed to draw that line in the dirt. Lee had never taught me that beforehand.
He never would, either. Even in his dying breaths, I still didn't fully grasp it.
"But… you do it to keep us all safe. And to protect me!" I had told him, hearing the scissors snipping through my hair as Lee tilted my head downwards.
I could tell he was shaking his head as he had let out a huge sigh. "Doesn't make it right," he basically repeated himself, just puzzling my nine year old mind even more as I pouted my bottom lip. My heart was still aching from our recent losses of Carley, Katjaa and Duck, but already my mind was finally starting to clue in to what was going on around me.
This wasn't some sick game we were all playing, or some really crappy nightmare that just seemed to go on and on forever. This was what real life was like now, and from what I had seen of our group and what we were going through, I had started to believe that suddenly, without anyone expressly stating it, the rules had changed. And it was almost as if it happened overnight.
Suddenly, good became bad, and bad became good. The smallest kind gesture towards helping out a stranger in need was often met with backlash and criticism. Stealing supplies out of some random person's station wagon and leaving an unknown man and his family with nothing but a few scraps was the right thing to do, even though I didn't agree with it. If this was bad, then why was everyone so content with it? Why were we all acting as if this was normal? How could something that had brought so much pain to another family be considered the right thing to do?
My head had hurt so badly trying to figure that out in the first couple of years, and even more so after I had seen Mom and Dad out on the street back in Savannah. My parents were dead from the start – I realized this fact a long time ago. But even still, I had holed out on a slim chance of hope. After all, I was young. Young and very, very stup- no, stupid isn't the right word for it. Naïve is probably better. Naïve and so, so lost. They had always been my anchor during my youth. I could've gone to them with anything. Any problem that I had, any bad trip, deep cut, mean bully… even just when I had wanted a hug. I wanted them to lie to me – to promise me that everything was going to be alright, just as Lee had lied to me so many times before.
Not that I minded, after all. He was just trying to tell me what I wanted to hear. No sense in getting a nine year old all worked up when there was already plenty enough to get frightened over. He was just being a caring, kind-hearted individual, just as I had always pictured him as.
Lee set the bar pretty high in terms of how to be a responsible caregiver – maybe a little too high. How am I supposed to compete with the way he went about things? Things are different now… aren't they? Would Lee have tried to take care of me the same way that he had before if he were faced with these same scenarios?
A part of me would actually like to think that he would, regardless of what might be in front of him. I don't want his legacy to get tainted in my eyes, and I wouldn't want his sacrifice to have been totally in vain over one little mistake.
This is my turn now, and I'm going to make the best with what I've got. And if that means that a few people have to die in order for me to achieve that goal, then so be it.
At the moment, I see three immediate problems. First, Miles' blood is matted onto my shirt, and no amount of scrubbing with my hand is going to remove the splotches. I'm basically a walking evidence bag, meaning that I'm more than likely to be shot on sight given everyone's attitude lately.
Two: I've just broken out of my cell, if that wasn't obvious enough. Not only was Miles supposed to be on watch duty, strolling down the halls and making sure that there were no shenanigans going about, but now the camp has a prisoner on the loose within the confines of their own home – a very angry, very dangerous prisoner. No doubt somebody's going to wonder where Miles has gone off to (sadly because they'd probably be more pissed that he isn't doing his job more than his actual wellbeing), and although I had made absolutely sure to close and lock the door behind me before I left, the smell's likely going to be wading out into the hallway at some point. They're gonna find out sooner rather than later.
Third is probably the biggest and most taxing of issues that I've been thinking about since I got out here: grabbing Ellie along with finding Lilly and Jane. I'm almost certain that they're waiting for me somewhere within the camp. After all, who else would've written me that note? No, they had meant to spring me, I'm sure of it. Thank goodness that they were tactful about it, though. The whole place would've been in a complete lockdown if they had caused a racket.
But how in the world am I supposed to get Ellie out of here? And what if… what if James and Bo have…
"What I wouldn't give for some TV right about now…"
"Really, Ruben? What would there even be to watch? Sports? The only one I could think of would be walker hunting – and that's not really saying much."
"You know what I mean though, don't you?" Ruben, one of the Fireflies (decked out in a swanky set of body armour along with a helmet that I didn't know we had around here) says to his friend. I had known previously that some of our guys had hit the jackpot out at an old military outpost to the north of here, and that Lilly in particular had taken a real interest in it, but had heard nothing more afterwards. Hmph… looks like I really wasn't that well-informed about things after all. "Just some kind of entertainment, or at least a little bit of news so we can hear about what's going on with the rest of the country. You wanna know what I did for fun yesterday?" he questions, their voices getting closer as I quickly dart into one of the kids' rooms. Thankfully they're out with their parents today. "Tile counting – there are exactly one thousand, two hundred and twenty seven roof tiles on the second floor of the space centre. Then I went to bed. How the fuck is that supposed to keep me sane for days on end?"
There's actually a possible exit for me through the window if I had planned on just breaking out and escaping, since the drop is negligible and I'd be able to make it past the watchtower stationed ahead with relative ease. We never have really had a purpose in keeping anyone stationed there, since the whole thing is blocked off by a thick, concrete wall that backs up onto the highway, and the courtyard is often bare with only shrapnel and old, loose newspapers flying about. But there's no way I'd be able to get back inside to my friends from out there, and I'd be cornered off by the wall regardless…
Sticking to the initial "winging it" plan, I hug Miles' gun to my chest and wait for the two boys to pass by; just praying that I won't have to resort to violence this time. I know my limits, and avoiding conflict altogether is often the best possible outcome that I could hope to achieve.
"Heh, maybe you should try going out beyond the walls with me for a change. It'll give you a chance to see what it's really like on a run!" he chuckles as the footsteps stop a few feet away from the door.
Ruben doesn't seem to like that idea too much. "No way, man. That might be actually a little too exciting. Walkers are one thing, but now that we've got these bandits and shit? I think I'll just take my chances when we start looking for a new home."
"Yeah… maybe a change of scenery would do us all some good."
"Anything's better than here… That Racheal chick was right. Clementine was a time bomb. I knew letting a kid lead a group of adults was the dumbest idea I'd ever heard. Fucked us all over big time."
"No argument from me on that one."
Well then you don't really have to worry about that anymore, assholes, I spitefully think to myself, although finding myself very self-conscious about his words even as Ruben and whoever it was beside him go about their business. Sigh… was I really that incompetent? Should I have just laughed at the whole idea and handled the mantle of leadership over to someone else? Lilly probably would've done a good job – she has done it before, after all. Maybe she could've made some better decisions and had a much firmer grasp on things than I ever did. Jane… well, honestly I doubt that she'd ever want to be in charge around here, but hey, you never know I suppose.
Anything's better than the total crap-fest that's going on right now. I'm surprised that half the camp hasn't already started to turn on each other and leave. Although I suspect that within the next few days, if someone hasn't stepped up to take over, then that'll probably start to be the case. The Houston Space Centre's gonna be a shadow of its former self.
So much for being one of the major players on Scott's old settlement map.
…holy shit. That's it! I've got it! I know exactly where we should start heading towards!
Feeling slightly excited at the prospect of actually having a solid idea of what to do after pulling off this daring rescue, I take my chances and slowly creak back out into the hallway; looking both ways before darting away and off towards the medical bay. I know this place inside out – every nook, cranny and possible hiding spot in the entire place is neatly tucked away inside my head. And the only possible place that James would've taken that kid away is within a little, tightly concealed room in the corner of the spaceship room – the very same spot that I had seen James performing his experiments on people so long ago.
Making sure to have eyes in the back of my head at all times so as to not get discovered, I keep my gun out in front of me and keep moving forward; taking care that my footsteps are light enough not to echo off the walls. I can see part of the gang – Kazuki, Marcus, Alden, Kelly and Scott – burying some of our people out in the back, and my stomach drops a tad. I owe those guys my life several times over, and this is how I'm going to repay them? After all that we've been through together, I'm just going to take off without a word of goodbye?
It's tough, and really disheartening to admit, but it's probably for the best. I know that they weren't involved in keeping me locked up, since we've all had our fair share of mistakes in the past. They get it. They understand what it's like to potentially lose someone that you care deeply for.
But at the same time, I don't want to risk the chance of being wrong about them. They were my friends, sure, but has that changed? There's a big possibility that whatever Bo and Racheal and Katie and whoever else had said to them may have torn and tainted our friendship to no end. Maybe to them I'm just some asshole who screwed them over, which seems to be the majority of thinking right now anyways. Ugh… just thinking about that get me going… I need to get the hell out of here.
Silently thankful that Tommy hasn't been here for years and thus hasn't been able to trigger up any alarm system in this place, I push the door to the spaceship room open and get confused as to why I don't need to punch in the code on the door. This… this is too easy. Where is everyone? Why aren't they guarding this place as if the most sacred treasure in all the land is tucked away inside? I would've figured that there'd be at least five patrols set up, but mysteriously, I don't see a single one.
Once I start to hear the whirring of the power slowly start to dissipate, and watch as the lights start flickering, a small smile sprouts upon my lips. "You guys are geniuses," I compliment, even though neither of the two women can hear me right now. This is my chance right here – come what may, I'm going to get Ellie out of here once and for all.
Like a snake, I hide behind a computer desk and resist the urge to shoot Bo in the head as I steal the map off of the table; hearing his raspy voice calling out to James as he walks on ahead.
"Don't worry, I'll check it out! I'll be back in a few!" he promises, rolling his eyes as James gives him a half-hearted wave of approval. "Into one ear and out the other, seriously…" he murmurs, nearly spotting me as I quickly duck my head and wait for the bald-headed cancer patient to leave.
As physically sick and traumatized as he's become over the years, Bo still somehow has managed to be pretty capable. He could easily just have shot me as soon as I walked up the front steps, but he didn't.
And I have no idea why.
Lilly's POV
"UGH!"
Down goes yet another entire cabinet full of papers, file folders and office supplies, stacked haphazardly onto the floor along with all of the other chairs, desks and tables that we could scrounge together in such a short notice. Cutting the power was easy enough, as the cords were pretty exposed and all it took was just a few swift cuts from Jane's hunting knife to slowly dim the entire complex. Causing a distraction took a little bit of thinking on my part, mostly because it involved drenching the entire second level in the gasoline from some of the tanks we had collected for emergencies. Nobody had suspected a thing, naturally, and as much as that might hurt us in the long run, it did manage to capture a bunch of attention – even some that we didn't want. Walkers have been hearing all of the noise that we've been making and are close to pounding on the walls outside.
But blocking off the hallway? Now that has taken some time – time that we simply don't have. Bullets have been fired blindly in our direction as we've been stacking them up high, and I think one had even grazed Jane's leg briefly, but the main problem is that our plan hasn't exactly gone off without a hitch. Even in the dark, Racheal and Katie knew that it was Jane and I causing all of this unbridled mayhem, and have since taken over in trying to take us down.
"Pick your spots and don't let them escape!" Racheal bellows as I just barely avoid some of her gunfire. The flash of bullets is the only thing that's lighting up the corridors out here, but the reason that she's being so careful about it is that with one false move, the whole thing could be set ablaze. They can't have that, otherwise her plan of getting out of here will go down the tubes as well. "You could've made this much easier on yourself, Lilly! On all of you! It still doesn't have to go down like this!"
I don't answer, and neither does Jane for fear of letting her know our location, so the two of us keep backing up and sending out all the furniture that we're physically able to carry. It's a good thing that they hadn't gotten over here before we could construct our makeshift barricade, otherwise we would've been totally screwed. Our only saving grace now might be this and the very things that we've been killing for years, who have actually started to break through the thinly-layered and worn down defenses that we've got downstairs. Just when we all think that we've cleared out the walkers in the city, somehow they always manage to find a way to spring back up. Texas did have a pretty big population, come to think of it. There were bound to be some that we had missed.
I can only hope that Clementine hasn't gotten caught yet, and that Miles was actually gullible enough to buy into everything.
"This should buy us some time…" Jane whispers over to me, placing her hand on my forearm and ushering me to leave it well enough alone. "No time for nitpicking! We've gotta go!"
"Alright…" I agree as Katie tries to take down some of what we've built here. True, this should be able to give us just the amount we need to get back downstairs, but will the metal plates downstairs be able to hold out until we leave this place behind us in the dust? I severely doubt it.
Without my hunting rifle, I'm almost completely defenceless against their onslaught of attacks, and pissing off the mob of people behind all of those pieces of furniture probably wasn't such a grand idea. But my gut is telling me that the only way we're going to save Clem is for us to take the sneaky approach – meaning, little to no firearms allowed, aside from the tiny 10 mm pistol I've got in the back of my pants. I don't even think Jane has a gun at this point.
"So," Jane quirks as we bound down the staircase as fast as we can, "who's buying the celebration beer after we haul ass out of here?"
Chuckling lightly, I shrug my shoulders and turn around the corner until we can see the main floor once again. It's kind of alarming seeing the flailing, undead limbs shambling in from the outside as our planks have started to give way, but I steel my nerves and pull my wi – I mean, friend – over with me to the side. "As long as I get some food in my stomach, I think I'll be satisfied. God, I'm starving…"
"Maybe I can take all of you guys fishing again, huh? Just the three of us. Let the pro show you how it's done – it'll be just like old times."
"…you do mean four, right?" I ask, wondering if she's been having the same disturbing thoughts about what's going to happen (or, has already happened) to Ellie now that the secret's out.
She doesn't answer me for a few moments, sporting a blank expression as she lets go of my arm and keeps one eye open for anything out of the ordinary. "…right…" she adds, making me sigh with doubt. The possibility has constantly been lingering there, and we both know it. Ellie's fate was up in the clouds the moment that we had gotten back, no matter what Clementine may have had to say about it. In fact, I've still got mixed feelings about the entire thing even hours after I found out that she is in fact, immune.
The best kept secret that I've ever even heard of was probably also the biggest dick move that I've ever experienced. I don't know who to root for anymore – Clementine, or the rest of us.
"That's not gonna hold," I remark as one of the walkers get their body about halfway through the window, with their insides getting ripped apart by the sharp edges of glass and metal as its piercing, unfeeling eyes cast their way over towards us. Even if they can't see us in the dark, their scent of smell is probably just working into overdrive. I see that their hunger for the taste of human flesh is on point, as always…
Looking over with skepticism, Jane purses her lips and instinctively holds onto the grip of her knife. "Please tell me that you've got a backup plan just in case, Lilly," she remarks, grimacing as three more take the plunge inside. "I don't think we really accounted for walkers to come in and wreck the entire – "
BANG! BANG-BANG-BANG! BANG-BANG!
Right now, I think that we're just about screwed. This whole plan has just gone to shit in a matter of seconds. I think that Katie or Racheal have found us, shoved the cabinets to the side and have rejoined the two troublemakers down on the main floor, and that they and the rest of this place have started to combat the walkers who are now trying to pour into the base like a leaky hole in a boat.
My blood runs cold as all of the possibilities swim through my brain – most of them involve Jane and I getting torn up by bullets until, at the very last moment, Racheal stands over me; holding Clementine's decapitated head in her arm and dropping it to the floor beside me as Jane turns into a walker. My body would get ripped open like a ragdoll by the very person that I love so dearly, and all the while I'd be screaming for one of those assholes to just end it all in a quick, painless fashion.
But that doesn't happen. Not exactly, anyways. Sure, they've started shooting the walkers from atop the roof and through the few open windows on the second floor, but somebody else has killed the walkers that had managed to break inside.
"Easy now," Bo coaxes, stepping out from the shadows as he tries to talk us down. "I'm not going to hurt you – either of you. You know that. But for the love of god, could you please put your weapons down? We need to talk. Preferably somewhere a little more private than this."
"We're not stupid, Bo. We all know that we're way past that. The time for talking is gone," I point out, still not having drawn my gun at the guy as I see Jane's head turning back and forth to watch the walkers.
Sighing, as though he himself actually believed that we would be giving up just like that after all of this, Bo fires another bullet at an incoming walker before glancing through one of the sections that they haven't broken into yet. "Won't be long before they get in," he mentions, feigning annoyance as he frowns at the outside world. "Was the sabotage really necessary? You couldn't have found a better way to get Clementine out than this? I guess that I shouldn't really be surprised with all the cloak and dagger, considering the two of you – "
"Get the fuck out of here, Bo," Jane demands, sounding more like a plead than anything else as I concur. "Just go! You're not stupid – you know that we'll overpower you. We're giving you a chance here. Dying like this is just stupid! Walk away from this with your life… and you'll never see us again, I promise you."
"…why would you throw this away?" Bo ponders as I stiffen up a little bit. Maybe it's the threat of danger on both ends of the hall that's really making me think, or maybe it's just that I've been wondering the same thing that he's telling me now. "Ellie… she's just a child, yes. I know that. But is it really worth all of this? We could work together and just… be done with this whole thing. Go back to our normal lives again. And Ellie's the key to making that happen."
"I don't think locking Clem up and throwing away the key really counts as working together," I bitterly add as Bo grumbles under his breath.
"Clem…" he begins, looking as though he might've just lost a protégé or something, "she… she just didn't get it. Couldn't accept that keeping Ellie alive was a mistake. She couldn't put the good of everyone over that of one person… this isn't what Ellie would want."
"You don't know that, Bo."
"That's what this entire organization was made for, Lilly. How do you think we got so many people rounded up together in the first place?"
…he's got me on that one, doesn't he? Sure, the prospect of having a roof over our heads and a firm, strong community to back us up with food, supplies and protection was too good to ignore at the start, it did end up becoming something more. We turned into a sort of post-apocalyptic United Nations of sorts, trying to bring people together under one cause and to get society rolling again. Not in the exact same way that we had been used to before, naturally, but something of an order to things would've helped a lot of us sleep at night. I hated how things were going, with people dying left and right without any possible hope of saving them. It wasn't fair how the few people that I truly gave a shit about were taken away from me right before my eyes. I didn't want that to happen anymore. I wanted to just… start over, I guess.
And the only way to do that was to try and go with this ambitious yet totally unrealistic plan of theirs. Saving the world? That kind of shit just didn't happen. Really, the only reason I was sold on it was because Clementine practically begged me to join, and I had made a promise to her that I wouldn't abandon her ever again. Clem, Jane and I would hold out as long as we could. Finally, my life had purpose again. For a second time, I had something worth preserving.
But now that the opportunity's here, should I really be squandering it? How long's it gonna be before another person like Ellie comes along to give us the cure to this walker disease? Will it ever actually come? Maybe I'll be dead by then.
It's a huge dilemma, one that I'm not prepared to solve without a little help.
Bo must've been reading my face like an open book, because the next thing he does is soften his approach and lower the gun gently to the side. "I can make you an offer here," he tempts us with reasonable caution. "You stop this, help us get the power back on so James can continue his work, and we'll let you walk away from this with no trouble at all. No backlash, no bullshit. You guys and Clem can just head off on your own… hell, we'll even cure you, for Christ's sake."
"You don't even know if it'll work yet," Jane accuses, voicing my thoughts exactly as I glare at the man.
"Well… not yet, no. But give it time and – "
"How long's it gonna be before Katie and Racheal decide to slit our throats while we wait? The whole fucking camp wants our heads on pikes, Bo," I exaggerate, but only for the desired effect as I eye the encroaching walkers wearily. "And besides," I add in, throwing a curveball through this whole elaborate pitch of his, "it's not your decision to make. It's not any of ours, come to think of it. It's Ellie's."
"This is what she'd want. If she knew what it all meant, then – "
"You haven't even asked her yet," Jane intervenes, not saying a word to Bo as he fails to notice a walker strolling up to his position near one of the open windows. With a little luck, maybe it'll… "Have you?"
Bo's never really had a silver tongue, and hasn't really been known for his ability to lie through his teeth. So I can tell from a mile away what he's thinking when he tells us that he has – a big, fat no.
And with Clementine already on the hunt for her little companion, along with all of the odds stacked against us, it seems that we have little choice other than to go through with our original idea.
"You need to reconsider this," Bo warns more edgily, holding his gun back up as he threatens Jane and I. "I'm giving you a chance here – a chance to do the right thing."
"We are."
"They'll hunt you like animals to the ends of the earth for this."
"We know."
Saddened and depressed that he couldn't really sway us to go along with what he had proposed, even though I'm sure that that's all Jane's probably thinking about right now, he shakes his head is disappointment. "I still can't let you leave…" he mumbles as the both of us are put on high alert. "One way or another, this isn't going to end well. Somebody has to – "
"GRAAAGGGHHH!" bellows the walker as it smashes through the window and clamps its jaws down onto Bo's arm – the metallic one, that is. Its front teeth break as it tries to chew like an idiot through the metal plaster, but Bo is still surprised enough to let down his guard. He goes to fire a bullet into the walker's head, but Jane pounces on him and, with my help, manages to tackle the guy to the ground; bringing the walker inside with us as the struggle for dominance begins. Punches and kicks are thrown as Bo thrashes at all three of his targets, but when I get a good look at his face, I can see fear in his eyes. We've all got that when we know that the end is coming. It's the look you get when you know precisely then that you're going to die.
And I've got to say – as much as I may have disliked him recently, I don't want him to go out like this. Having a walker take a bite out of you before slowly having the infection seep into your brain is a terrible way to go. The guy's already been through enough. Even he doesn't deserve this to happen to him.
Still, even as a crippled man with lung cancer, he's still a survivor through and through, and is putting up one hell of a fight. He's already managed to keep the walker at bay with his free hand and has tried to direct its snapping jaws towards Jane instead, but thankfully she dodges it just in the nick of time with a swift kick to the thing's face. More of the gnarly undead creatures are coming in from ways away, putting the pressure up a little bit, so I take some of Bo's actual, living fingers and snap them sideways; hearing him scream in pain and grunting as I'm roughly kicked in the stomach. Winded, I hold my gut and try to get the air to re-enter my lungs as Jane quickly shoves me to the side before Bo can fire his gun. Mine's still in the back pocket of my jeans, but it's too painful right now to reach it. And there's no way that Jane will be able to knife the guy now that the walkers are getting so close.
"RUN!" she screams at me, ducking as Bo fires a couple of wild shots that go sailing over our heads. I do as she says, regaining my strength and turning my head back around only to see Bo reluctantly letting us head into the board room.
"Say goodbye to James for me…" I hear him whisper on the wind as he turns back around to make his final stand. With no way out, and nothing but his pistol to protect himself with, Bo grits his teeth and shoots at the oncoming walkers that are quickly surrounding him. Even through all of the pain, somehow he's still able to keep on fighting.
With a heavy heart, I slam the door shut just as the walkers start to overwhelm him.
Clem's POV
"You know they'll be coming for us, right? Every one of us."
"Shut up, and stay where I can see you."
"Clementine, please just listen to me. This right here? It's a huge mistake. The biggest one you'll ever make."
"I said shut up!" I bellow like a madwoman, firing a bullet at his computer screen, shattering the data he had on there and threatening to lodge a round into his brain if he doesn't cooperate with me. He looks incredibly distraught as I ruin part of his life's work, and he's about ready to holler out at me again, but a swift, threatening stare from me zips his mouth closed for at least a brief stint. "There. That wasn't so hard now, was it?" I mock, never taking my eye off the doctor for fear of what he might try as I pick Ellie up into my arms. Carrying her bridal style, I unhook the various wires and medical equipment from her as I frantically try to save her life.
She's breathing, at least. So there's that.
"…don't let this be what you're remembered for, Clementine… You… you can still make this right…"
"Murdering my little girl isn't making ANYTHING right! I know what you're going to do to her!"
"Would you listen to yourself right now?! She's not your daughter, Clementine!" James reminds me, although every bone in my body is telling me that she might as well be at this point. "Open your eyes and look at how many people you're hurting! You're supposed to be saving people, not throwing away this… this gift."
"You're right," I nod, making sure not to turn my back on him as Ellie stirs in her sleep. "Ellie is a gift, and I'm not going to let her get fucked over just so that you can have your weird, little experiments on her brain! She's… she's all I've got left!"
Saddened eyes form behind his glasses as James, the man that I had nearly gunned down when he wasn't looking, slowly rises to his feet as I edge my way back towards the door. "That's not true at all, sweetheart…" he sighs, sounding much more like the kind, caring James rather than the scientific one that I see him as right now. "You've still got so much left to live for… As do the rest of us. People like Ellie only come about once in a lifetime. She's the only hope that we've ever had at making a cure for all of this madness. Please, Clem… if you ever cared about the Fireflies at all… you'll put her back so that we can start this over again."
"…I care about Ellie more," I respond decisively a moment later, casting a sympathetic look over to James as he watches me take the one chance he had away from him.
Slipping out into the spaceship room, I'm met with a great yet terrifying sight – Lilly and Jane have returned, but are fighting off impossible odds as the Houston Space Centre starts to get turned inside out. Walkers have started to overtake the base, if the loud groans from outside are any indication, and so heading back out the way I came is completely out of the question. Ellie's gonna be passed out from whatever drugs James had given her for what seems to be a very long time, and there's no telling how long we're going to be able to hold out here for.
Locking the door tightly so that James can't get out of the medical bay at the moment, I carefully set Ellie down in a spinning chair before joining Lilly and Jane in holding the door against an onslaught of the undead. I had swiped James' key when I first got into the medical bay, so I don't have to worry on that front. He won't be using it to escape.
"You came back…" I murmur, my head still spinning with thoughts – my own, as well as the dozen or so others that have penetrated into my brain.
"We never left," Jane grunts, putting her back into it as she grinds her teeth together. "But Jesus fucking Christ, Clem… this better have all been worth it. Is Ellie…?"
"Back there," I acknowledge, nodding over at the sleeping child as Lilly spots her with a grimace. "Look, I know this is bad, but… but we can still do this! I've figured it out! All we need to do is head to Alexandria, and – "
Obviously finding the very notion ridiculous, Lilly intervenes to immediately try and shoot the idea down. "Alexandria? Are you kidding me? That's all the way up in Virginia!" she reminds me as I bite my lip in admittance. "How are we supposed to even get that far, Clem? Walk? They'll catch up to us in no time, not to mention that we'll run out of food long before then!"
Not wanting to back down, I stubbornly shake my head and put some more pressure on the pounding door.
"We can hunt on the way there, then! There's bound to be some deer along the way, plus all of the rabbits and other wildlife hopping around…"
"Clem…"
"I can even teach Ellie how to scavenge for supplies like we used to back then! We'll all go out together, and hopefully by then everyone will have just moved on and – "
"CLEMENTINE!" Lilly yells, stopping me in my tracks as she shakes her head violently. "Think more clearly here! There's no way that you're even getting out of this city on foot, let alone across the country! What else do we have?"
The panic is starting to settle in, I'm pretty sure. James is now trying to get out, as I can see him faintly banging on the glass and twisting the doorknob with all of his might, and Lilly and Jane seem to be really on edge. I can't imagine what might be freaking them out right now…
"Uhh… well…" I stutter, finding it difficult to think straight when all of the pressure is building up on top of each other. "What about… the helicopter?"
"No roof access! Think of something else!"
"I'm trying!" I angrily retort, leaving my post for just a minute as I spread the map flat on the desk. "There's… there's gotta be something else we can…" I cut myself off, smacking myself in the forehead and wondering how the hell I didn't think of this before. "The trucks! There's still one downstairs! If we can get to it before the walkers can, then we'll be all set!"
"That thing's barely got any juice left! It'll get you maybe a few miles at best!"
"That's just enough to get us out of the city!"
"Are you sure you want to take that risk?" Jane asks me seriously as I tilt my head to the side. What's she asking me this for as if the two of them aren't coming with me?
…no. No fucking way.
I haven't felt this frightened to go out of the space centre since I was still a little kid, as tears start to well up uncontrollably in my eyes and I stubbornly shake my head. "No, no, no! You're leaving! We're… we're all leaving! Together! That's what we promised!" I refuse, slamming my fist on the table as Lilly and Jane steadily look downwards. "Damn it! You can't do this! We need to stick together! You're coming with us! Guys, I need you!"
"I step off this door, and every walker out there barges inside," Lilly points out matter-of-factly. She's not angry like I had thought she would be with me, but just… concerned. She wants us all to be safe, I know that, and there's likely nothing in the world she'd rather do right now than to join Ellie and I on our journey to… well, to wherever it is the road takes us, really. "Go, kiddo. Just get her out of here, and keep your head on your shoulders. C'mon, Clem… don't get so upset!" she painfully smirks towards me. "You're acting as if this is the last time we'll ever see each other!"
"I don't want to lose you again…"
"You won't," Jane continues, trying to make me feel a little bit more hopeful about this bleak and dire situation. "We're gonna see each other again, alright? We'll meet you at Alexandria – hell, I bet we'll even be at the gates before the two of you manage to get there!"
"…promise?" I tearfully ask them, feeling so childish and helpless at the same time. But I need to hear it – I need them to tell me that this is all going to work out, and that everything is going to be alright. I need them to be my Lee for the day, just as I plan to be him for Ellie when we're out of here.
Nodding hesitantly, the both of them promise me at the exact same time, and I stand there for only a brief time before choking down a terrified sob and racing over to scoop Ellie back up into my arms. The passage to the basement is blocked partially with debris, but the two of us are just barely able to squeeze through and open the door that leads downwards.
Taking one last look at the two women, I shake my head and try my best to focus on the task at hand – keeping Ellie alive. That's all that matters anymore.
Do what you think is right here, sweet pea, Lee echoes from afar, perched up against the truck casually as I smash the back window and undo the lock; cursing my misfortune as the alarm blares like crazy. That's all that I ask – do what your heart's telling you. It'll point you in the right direction.
"Then why are you telling me this like I'm making the wrong choice?"
Only you can know what that right choice is, he repeats as I realize that, even though everything he's telling me is how I'd picture he would actually speak, in reality there's nobody there. Lee is gone. I watched him die – I shot him in the head, and made sure that he didn't come back.
"You're not here…" I shudder, gently placing Ellie in the back seat on her side as I fumble for the keys in the front. We always have the keys lodged up in the vanity mirror so that they'd never get lost. "You're not here… None of you are…"
Ignoring all of my betraying thoughts and demons as they all at once try to convince me that they're still alive and kicking, I start the engine and shakily pull a u-turn; heading straight towards the exit at an unsafe speed.
Awaiting me at the garage door is Emily of all people, pointing a gun straight towards me as she tries to get me to come out of the vehicle. But I won't be swayed – I've put far too much on the line here to risk it just because of a gun pointed at my face, and I rev the engine once to get her to try and move out of the way.
I've known her for a long time, along with most of my other friends around here. We've stuck it out through the worst conditions imaginable, and it's horrible that it's had to come to this stage.
But if I must, I'm more than prepared to take Emily head on; to flatten her out like a pancake and leave her broken body on the concrete if that's what it'll come to.
"Please, Emily…" I shake my head sadly, pointing out a gun of my own and placing it upon my lap. The girl's shaking her firing hand with trepidation, and it's hard not to notice the conflicting emotions upon her face. She knows that I wouldn't do this without a damn good reason.
And so, after about five seconds or so, she caves. Hanging her head lowly and refusing to look at me, she steps to the side and allows me to leave; even going so far as to actually pull the chain down in order to open the garage for me.
"…thank you, Emily," I roll down the window and tell her sincerely, although she still refuses to acknowledge anything. "For everything. Tell the guys I said the same."
"…just go," she flatly responds, and I frown before reluctantly doing so; leaving her in the dust as I try to dart off in an opposite direction of this once amazing place. Now it's nothing more than a festering pile of shit, with some of the best people I've ever met still trapped inside.
The least I can do is honk the horn and attract the attention of some of the incoming walkers as they stumble their way closer to the truck.
Jane and Lilly better be at Alexandria with us. Because I'm pretty sure it's our last remaining option.