4:33 PM - November 16, 2025 (9 days later) - Denver, Colorado
Ledge [Lee Everett]
A harsh clank echoed out as Lee slammed the hood down with his elbow. His only hand gripped his pistol tightly; if it came down to it again, it was their lifeline. Ammo was short, so was food. It was a situation that wasn't favourable for them, but not one they hadn't seen countless times before. Without Whiskers, they needed to find another way to shorten their travelling time back to Jackson unless they wanted to keep scraping by out here. Lucky for them, this might've been it.
"Okay…" Lee breathed out, circling the vehicle. He realized it was one of the old muscle cars from back in the day, some kind of old Corvette, or… Mustang? An orange tint coated it, with white, racer-like stripes running down both sides and above. Five seater, decent condition… probably won't blow up on the way back. Let's hope.
"I think we got one. Just needs more fuel. So we oughta start looking, yeah?" He spoke, before holstering his pistol and reaching into an open pocket on the side of his bag, outstretching his hand towards Clementine. He waited for her to take the siphon from him.
Art [Clementine]
So this was it, then.
Days, those seemed to go by much slower. Every morning quieter than the last, until nightfall ushered on the dead-silence that plagued Lee and Clementine. Two lone shadows under the moonlight.
It was a bad type of nostalgic. The kind that made her skin crawl, her toes curl up in fear. She wasn't alone, for as much as the beating of her heart warned her as much, but Clem may as well have been. Ellie and Joel had just joined the list, and the girl was all the worse for it.
A week had sneaked past her the same way a drooling clicker would before chowing on someone's neck. An uneventful afternoon preceded by many like them. The joints in Clem's knees screaming for help at the prospect of making even the smallest step toward their destination. It almost made her hopeful, then, that they might've not had to walk all the way there after all.
The girl took hold of the siphon without much in the way of physical contact, much less a visual one. Her lips trembled as she stared at the rows of cars, all waiting to have those meager drops of gasoline sucked right out of them. A drawn-out sigh was all she could afford to give before her legs met the pavement, and that dreaded plastic tube hovered over her tongue. The girl begrudgingly inhaled, wincing as the sour liquid found its way into her mouth until it had her spitting everything out.
A terribly unfun way to spend twenty-four minutes.
The can had enough to feel heavy, eventually. Heavy for her, at least. Clementine found herself back where she'd started, haphazardly handing the fuel to Lee, eyes flickering with nausea. I'm gonna puke... Those same amber eyes shot to the floor, and the saliva collecting on the edge of her lips the girl promptly spat out like there was no tomorrow, while she gradually started to feel weak at the knees. Lee'd just have to load the car himself, it looked like.
Ledge [Lee Everett]
He couldn't lie to himself. Lee had exercised the thought of turning back into the direction that Joel and Ellie were headed. Even if it was just to see a reaction, a smile…anything from her. Though it was too late for all that. He figured they both knew turning back wouldn't be ideal at this point.
"Good work." He nodded, trying his best to play off the silent treatment before taking the fuel canister from her hands. Flipping open the fuel hatch, Lee rested the canister on his stump and used his other hand to grip the top of the lid. He fought hard to minimize any wobbling and spillage. Slowly, he began to pour the contents of the container until there was nothing left. This whole one-handed ordeal still took some getting used to, and all he could do was tell himself it could've been a lot worse, which was true… to a degree.
Closing the fuel hatch and throwing the canister into the back seat, Lee rushed to the driver side, the keys jingling in his hand for a moment before he placed them into the ignition. Still standing by the driver door and hunched over, he twisted the keys. The car purred and croaked for a few moments, until the engine finally spurred to life, a puff of smoke coming out of the exhaust.
"There we go!" He spoke cheerfully over the loud roar emanating from the car, flashing a smile towards Clem. He didn't know why he expected her to jump in joy in that split second, so when it didn't happen, his smile soon faded as he averted his gaze.
If the engine held out, this meant they'd be back in… hell, hopefully in time for dinner. Lee stared at the driver seat, the door still wide open. Almost as if tantalizing them to get in and start driving… away from this hellhole, back to safety. Though, he looked back towards the teen, eyes darting around as if he was trying to come to some kind of conclusion.
You've been putting it off for too long anyway. If not now, when?
The man let out a soft grumble of defeat, circling around the car and opening the door on the other side. With that, Lee hopped into the passenger seat, reaching to his side and pulling the seat belt over him, firmly buckling himself in. Once all was said and done, he directed his attention to Clementine, bending his head down so he could see out of the driver seat where she was standing.
"Well, what are you waiting for? Let's go." He nonchalantly enquired, making his intentions clear. Yes, he finally wanted to give her the long awaited driving lessons. How she was going to take that was anyone's guess.
Art [Clementine]
The little girl watched in unrest as Lee forced the muscle car to start, twisting its key with force, not before loading it with the gas collected in the grimy, red can. As it turned out, the vehicle cheered in response, letting out a loud roar in the form of a working engine. Even then, she couldn't hope to feel anything but indifference, stricken by the fact that they'd only be traveling farther away from where her parents were. Away from the Fireflies.
Clementine wiped her mouth using her good hand, stopping to glance at Lee comfortably resting in her seat. "What are you doing?" She sounded reserved and genuinely confused, clutching at her forearm as her brows drew together.
Ledge [Lee Everett]
Lee supposed he should've expected her to be confused. He'd never taken the passenger seat before, but today was going to be different. If there was ever an emergency that put her in a position where she'd somehow need to drive, it would be a profoundly useful tool to learn one of these days, and Clem was around the right age now.
"I'm teaching you to drive." Lee responded, carefree in attitude. "So, c'mon. And don't forget your seatbelt." He promptly reminded her.
Art [Clementine]
Clem would've figured it for a joke had it not been for the look in Lee's eyes, the matter-of-factness in his voice. Drive? They'd had that type of conversation before, sure. Back when the girl's feet could barely reach the pedal, the windshield seeming entire worlds away.
Before she even knew it, Clementine could feel her back rubbing against the leather seat, the seatbelt sliding across her chest, her nine fingers wrapped around the steering wheel. With all that came an anxiety hard to fight back, the weight of Lee's request finally kicking in. It's not that she didn't want to drive that crazy cool car around, it's just that...
"You sure now's a good time...?" The question faded into silence as quickly as it left her. "What if there's, like... walkers or something?"
Ledge [Lee Everett]
"So, what now?" A young Lee, still sporting his teens, curiously asked his father. Looking over to him with his hands firmly gripped on the steering wheel, expecting a detailed response.
"Put the car in drive." His father responded firmly. Lee would waste no time shifting the gear into its required place. Looking over to his father again, he awaited his next instruction. A brief pause followed before the older Everett stared straight at him, almost as if he expected him to know what to do.
"Now drive."
In the moment, Lee remembered not being all too impressed with his father's 'direct' coaching skills. It still managed to garner a grin out of the man every time he thought about it. Some things just got funnier over time, and that memory was one of them. Lee just figured he'd try to do better at explaining things with Clem, if he could.
"If we see walkers blocking our way, just treat it like seeing a friendly average Joe. We slow down." He attempted to reassure her. If anything, maybe it'd be the perfect distraction to just… get their minds off things.
"Now, think of a… uh, clock. Or an old watch. Where the positions of the ten and two numbers are, that's where your hands should be on the steering wheel at all times. Accelerator is on the far right. To start off, you can ease your foot on and off it as slowly and as smoothly as you can. Got it?"
Art [Clementine]
It was easier than it looked. Kinda.
Clem's amber eyes were drawn to the spiraling road ahead. Her foot leaned against the right pedal with a mountain of hesitance, keeping the muscle car at what could only be described as a snail's pace. As daylight gradually came to fade, so did the steadiness in the girl's hands. Every small animal caught in the headlights had Clementine's shoulders leaping in place, and the snow-covered windshield did little in her favor. Her lips pursed and her palms sweated almost as though it wasn't freezing outside.
As Clementine lifted her right hand to pull off a gear shift, she swallowed hard, catching a glimpse of Lee's watchful eye. "Am I doing it right...?"
Ledge [Lee Everett]
With every passing minute, they were putting less distance between them and Jackson. The man occasionally glanced out of the window to the road, just imagining them both walking right now... it was a distasteful thought. One that made Lee all the more grateful that they'd found this thing. His watchful eye probably should've been doing thewatching part more carefully, but to be frank, he was caught up by how... grown up she looked. Watching her take the wheel for the first time after all these years, while he sat in the passenger seat like an old man. It made him feel... well, just that. Old.
Her worrisome tone was quick to snap him out of his daze. "Huh... ? Oh, no, you're doing good. Great, actually." Lee admitted, although he did notice that Clementine was a bit rigid. Naturally, that's how it usually was with the first time.
"If anything, just try to loosen up; be less... stiff. It's still a bit slippery on the road and it's getting dark, so slow and steady is good. You finding it okay so far?"
Art [Clementine]
She nodded, faking confidence. "Mhmm." Even if her shoulders loosened, her grip on the wheel only tightened, the girl's hips uncomfortably shifting position, looking for comfort where there couldn't be any. From then on, her eyes wouldn't budge. Her expression would stay the same, frozen nearly as stiff as the rest of her body, like it refused to change.
More road kept being unveiled from under the small corner of light ahead of the car, and that's where Clementine's eyes stayed. The two round shapes between her nose began to flicker once the light sneaking through the buildings ceased to be. Buried under her eyelids more and more, the longer the road stretched on, seemingly without an end. Clem loosened then. It was the only time she could afford to.