### Dom ###
Scavenging, scavenging and more scavenging. That's what Johnson and I have been doing the last few days. Since the collapse of Crawford and our escape, we were happy to be finally free again. Even when Freedom meant to always be on the run, we didn't care. Everything was better than being forced to stay in an area, you only feel hatred towards.
Walter's death was a big emotional hit for me. But even though he was like a father to me and kind of showed me to live with someone who deeply cared, I came over his death fairly well. The reason for that was probably my enthusiasm of finding Molly and Hilda, which Johnson clearly shared with me. I hoped that they still remained in Savannah and maybe had found that one kid's group, me and Molly had met in the Oglethorpe Mall. I had a lot of faith for the two girls. They knew what they were doing and their sisterly cohesion made them an unstoppable team. At least as long they didn't get separated from each other.
The first things Johnson and I tried to acquire, where guns, which turned out, as not being too difficult. An abandoned police station gifted us a fair amount of defensive tools. Johnson equipped himself with a shotgun, a Remington 870 and a pistol, a Glock 17. I also took a Glock 17 as a secondary weapon. For main personal defence I chose an AR-15 rifle. Quite a change for somebody who's main experience belonged on sniper or marksman rifles, but it was better than nothing.
The next thing on our list, was food and clean water, which was a bit harder to get. Most supermarkets and kiosks where nearly completely picked clean. But despite that, we still managed to acquire enough food for a week, if consumed thrifty.
The hardest thing to get, what was probably the most important equipment in an apocalyptic world, was medical gear. Apart from a few bandages, which were merely just a bunch of rags instead of professional certified bandages, we found nothing of that sort. We were forced to use alcohol as an antiseptic, to clean up wounds or cuts. Thankfully we haven't been harmed yet, so this method was not needed yet.
Two days were spent on finding all of this. Only then Johnson and I allowed ourselves to relax. An abandoned apartment, in the suburbs of Savannah, served us as a temporary shelter. A few hours of sleep, while the other one was on guard and then changing the roles, was the nocturnal routine. We had no other options. Being only two guys in a group, had many disadvantages. But Johnson and mine well developing, brother-like friendship, made everything a lot easier in terms of communication and knowing what the other wants or thinks. Unity and trust, were the most important things in a world like this. Unfortunately, many people lose their minds or suffer a change of personality and relied on selfishness and neglect of empathy and care for others to keep themselves alive.
After a week of bonding and getting to know each other, I knew a lot about Johnson, a kid only four years younger than myself. Born and raised in the French overseas territory of Saint Pierre and Miquelon, until he was 6, he and his parents migrated to the United States. First they stayed in Massachusetts, where Johnson attended and finished primary school. For a reason, Johnson himself never knew, his parents came up with the idea of moving to Savannah, Georgia, on the east coast of the US, shortly after. There he and his family stayed, until the outbreak of the virus. Johnson's parents sadly perished not long after the beginning of the apocalypse. But he, being always kind of rebellious and independent, made him handle their death pretty well. It left tremendous scars, of course, but Johnson barely showed it.
While getting to know each other better, was a good thing the week had offered, it also had its bad turn. Turns out, that after economically and fairly sharing the rations we owned, the inevitable still happened. We were running low on food, water and other more luxurious goods like cigarettes or deodorants. Even by furiously scavenging and searching for the needed resources, we didn't achieve great success. Only by renouncing to eat, until really, forcefully needed, we made it another week with the shrinking number of rations and water. But after this very week, we were forced to pull the strings and to react accordingly.
Stealing from others was never an option for us. No matter how much desperation we had, raiding other peoples safe houses or camps was a no-go. We weren't exactly paragons of virtue, but we tried our best to fit into this pattern.
One option was to leave Savannah and to check the surrounding towns and townlets around the metropolitan city. But leaving was something I couldn't do without the feeling of betraying Molly and Hilda. Even though I haven't seen any sign of her still being here, my heart tells me otherwise. She would never leave without me, I was certainly sure about that.
Johnson thankfully accepted my refusal to leave the city. He, like myself, felt himself committed to stay here and to find Hilda, in his position.
But despite all the commitment and hope to finally find the two girls, we, in the end, had to give in. The only way for us to survive, was to leave Savannah. One day of scavenging would be our last one here. After that, we would move on. We would have to move on, to be precise. We surely didn't want to, but we had no choice.
The last day in Savannah turned out to be a big breakthrough. A solution was near to fix all of our problems we had with food shortages and exhaustion. Johnson found a walkie-talkie in one of the smaller supermarkets in the north of the city. In the hopes of getting someone on the line that could help us, we decided to try contacting someone with it. Whoever we would speak to in the end, there were our last hope. Well, except for leaving the city, a possible and also risky solution we still tried to prevent.
Back in our safe house, returning from another, nearly fruitless session of scavenging, we gave our full attention towards the walkie-talkie. We stuffed on some recently acquired batteries and tried to turn it on. Johnson made an excited noise, as the device bleeped twice, a sign that it was on and functioning.
After thinking about what to say for a while, I tried my best to sound serious and spoke into the radio. "Can somebody hear me? We are in serious need of food and water. If somebody can hear me? Please respond.", I spoke into the radio. I had no clue how to properly communicate over radio but it probably wasn't relevant, judging by the current international situation.
Silence. No reply. The radio remained silent for seconds, which felt like hours, after I had sent out my pseudo distress call. A loud sigh escaped my lungs and I impatiently shook my head. "This isn't worth it.", I muttered, about to put the radio away, as a sudden noise of static caught Johnson and mine's attention off guard. It took a while for us to realize, that the noise actually came from the radio. Was somebody trying to speak to us?
"Hello?", said a voice, a bit suppressed by loud static and buzzing. "Holy cow.", Johnson exclaimed excited and looked at the device with growing eyes. "Yes, hello, uhh... Can you hear me?", I replied and waited patiently for an answer.
"Yes I can hear you.", the voice said. "Excellent. Did you hear my message? My friend and I are in a bit of a sticky situation 'ere.", I said and gave Johnson a wink. I was strongly hoping that this person could help us.
But my hope was shattered into pieces as the person suddenly said: "I heard your message. But I can't help you. I'm sorry."
"How come?", I asked. "I can't leave this house.", the voice replied.
"Dude that's a kid.", Johnson suddenly said, as he listened to the voice more closely. "Yeah you're right. She sounds really young.", I confirmed him and brought my attention back to the walkie-talkie.
"What's the reason you can't leave your house. Can we help you somehow?", I said. "Come to the Marsh House.", the kid's voice bluntly replied.
"Where the hell's the Marsh House?", Johnson silently asked. "No idea.", I whispered.
"What exactly is the Marsh House? And where is it?", I asked the kid though the radio. "It's in the west. A big house with a green roof and a car in front... aah!"
The transmission suddenly interrupted and the kids voice felt silent. The shocked sound she made a split second before, made me worried. What happened?
"You better not come here or bad things might happen.", a way deeper and darker, male voice now spoke to us. Johnson and I immediately shared confused looks. "Yo, I dunno what your blimmin' problem is, mate, but you better leave that kid alone, you hear me?", I ordered as calm as I could. I couldn't imagine this creep maybe hurting the girl, even though she's a total stranger to me and Johnson.
"I would never hurt her. I saved her from that group of killers she was trapped in for months. I am the good guy here. We don't need your help. Stay the fuck away.", the male voice shot back. After that the radio fell completely silent.
One more time, Johnson and I exchanged, confused but also worried looks. "What in Holland's seas was that?", I mumbled. "Dunno man, but ye thinking what I'm thinking?", Johnson countered and jumped off the chair he was sitting on. "No help me think here.", I replied and looked after him. "We're going to the Marsh House. This guy seems fishy to me. Maybe that gal is in danger.", Johnson explained and prepared himself to head out. "What could possibly go wrong?", I chuckled lightly and also prepared myself to leave our hideout.
Molly's theory that the rooftops are the safest route through the suburbs of Savannah, was probably correct and very efficient, but the fact that Johnson and I weren't agile like her to take an advantage out of it, made her theory useless, with respect. This meant that we had to pass the city's streets on the ground, which definitely was far more difficult and exhausting, than the way high up. Since the last few days the number of undead lurking through the town, have risen critically, which opened a lot of room for concern, why this happened. But Johnson and I were too busy thinking about that. We had to stay sharp every darn second to not get murdered by a surprise attack of undead. The scary thing was, that these creatures slowly started using pseudo-tactical manoeuvres to trap their victims, or better said meals, into dark corners or dead ends. Kind of like a mass-assault doctrine, where the enemy gets overwhelmed by the sheer endless number of units. Is there a possibility that this cursed virus is mutating and these undead, men-eating creatures getting more intelligent? At first, they seemed dumb as bread, but after a while, people started to realize that these monsters want them to think that, to make us easy pickings. A scary thought, if you ask me.
While the undead seem to get smarter from month to month, they still have a huge number of weaknesses. When they are distracted, by tearing flesh out of someone's corpse for example, they tend to get extremely blind, deaf and unaware of their surroundings. This was a big advantage for us because we could easily sneak past a bunch of these guys without getting noticed. It took a while until we arrived in the west of Savannah, but we made it there safe and sound and without much trouble.
"Now we need to find a house, with a green roof.", Johnson said and started looking around. "If Molly was with us right now, this would be done in seconds.", I exclaimed. "I think that's not necessary.", the young teen laughed. "What 'ye talkin' about?", I countered and looked at him confused. "Just look. I think we found it.", he replied and pointed in a big, wide house, with indeed a green roof and a partially destroyed sign at the front wall. Even though it was pretty messed up, I could still see some remaining parts of it that said "Marsh". This confirmed Johnson that we had indeed found the right location.
"Dude there's a car.", Johnson suddenly whispered. "What freakin' Doofus drives a goddamn car in an apocalypse? It's way to loud and attracts too many people who want to try stealing it from ya.", I countered while shaking my head. Don't get me wrong, being mobile and always able to move wherever you want, was good but it also brought a lot of danger with it. "Holy crap, this thing is filled with stuff. Dude, we could survive with this stuff for months. I bet this belongs to this creep on the radio.", Johnson said amazed, while looking through the boot window into the vehicle. "I don't know. But I think we should check out that house first and see if that kid is okay.", I replied to him. He agreed by nodding his head and removing his pistol from a holster he had clipped on his belt. Another thing we took from that abandoned police station we raided a week prior. I also grabbed my gun and kept it ready in one head to be able to react quickly, while still trying to hide it as good as I could.
There were two options of how we entered the building. The first was sneaking in and trying to surprise the presumed two people inside it. The second was to blast through the door FBI-like style and overwhelm them by brute force. Because we knew that a kid was definitely in that building, we decided to take option one. No need to scare the kid to death, who was already stuck in a very creepy scenario. Taken away by a complete stranger she didn't know, wasn't the most comfortable adventure. After giving each other a nod as a sign of "Ready.", we carefully and silently entered the house.
The first thing that greeted us, was a dead lass', lying on the floor, with a big chunk of her head missing. "Jesus.", I breathed out shocked. I hoped that the kid, hadn't seen this gruesome sight. With a white tablecloth which decorated a nearby standing table, I covered the dead body up. I didn't want the girl to see this.
Directly in front of us, staircase that lead into the second floor. Johnson and I didn't take long to realize, that this place was a hotel. The furniture in this room and a door to or lift with a sign saying "Bistro" attached to it, made it quite obvious. Johnson went to the stairs and started walking up with me following him right behind. We arrived in a long corridor expanding to both sides with many doors. Probably the hotel rooms, people have stayed in.
Johnson and I decided to split up and check every single room on each own. The younger boy checked the rooms to our left while I checked those to our right. Many of these rooms looked very identical. They all had the same style of furniture and decoration, which wasn't anything exceptionally special. One room, however, I found something so horrible, I wished I'd never entered it. Upon entry, it looked like all the other rooms. Same furniture, same style and the same strange atmosphere with all the blinds rolled down. A black plastic bag in one corner of the room randomly caught my attention. While walking towards it, a very disgusting, nausea causing stench of death crawled up into my nose. "Oh god in heaven.", I whispered, already expecting what awaits me in that bag. Even though I really didn't want to, I put my pistol back my belt and opened the plastic sack to see what was inside. I immediately took a gigantic step back, closed my eyes and turned my back towards the bag. Inside it were two dead bodies, probably an elderly couple, brutally massacred and with their heads smashed in to prevent undead reanimation. I couldn't help but gag and I really had to fight against an overwhelming urge to barf. "Fucking psychopath.", I muttered, assuming that this was the work of this one stranger guy, we talked to on the radio. Without looking back and with a lot of haste in my steps, I stormed out of the room and closed the door behind me. I took a few deep breaths to calm me down, which only worked to a small extent. I never forgot what I had seen in there.
A silent whistle caught my attention and I looked to my right. I saw Johnson standing in front of a closed hotel room door. He switched from his pistol, to his shotgun. He probably heard something in there and wanted me to cover his back while he checked it out. While walking towards him, I pulled my pistol out again, holding it firmly in my right hand. Upon reaching Johnson, he gave me a concerned look. It was probably visible that I was greatly disturbed. "Yo, you alright?", he asked. "You're pale as an albino.", he commented and snickered slightly. "While checking on of the rooms up there, I found a bag with two dead inside. Brutally killed and with cracked up heads. Nearly had to hurl.", I explained and shook my head. "Mon dieu. Que Dieu sauve leurs âmes.", Johnson whispered. I was capable of understanding French to a small extent and I knew what he said. "Amen.", I whispered as I gave him a slow nod.
"So, what's with that door you got there?", I asked him to get back to our "mission". "I have a strange feeling about this room. I think I heard some whispering in there. I thought it would be safer if I have you with me and cover my flanks.", he explained. "Good choice. I'm with ya.", I replied. "Aight, let's go.", Johnson said and opened the door. He pumped his shotgun and held it ready to fire. But after scouting the room out and realizing that no one was in there, he lowered it again. "Well, I must've imagined the whispering I had heard.", he said and looked at me with a shrug. "I don't know if that is a good thing or a bad thing. I want this kid out of here. This place is filled with too many gruesome sights, a kid shouldn't be confronted with.", I said and looked around. Motion behind some louvre doors of a cabinet made me jump. "Hey, come outta there.", I ordered, not thinking that it maybe could be the kid. When the person behind the shutters actually came out of hiding, I was immediately shocked. "Dom!?", a little girl with wild curly hair and a red hoodie said and looked at me and Johnson in amazement. "Holy cow! You are the girl we met in that mall.", I exclaimed also amazed and with widely open eyes.
Our amazement and surprise of seeing each other again was interrupted by the door getting opened. "I told you to not come here and still you ignored my orders. That would make killing you a justified deed.", the already known creepy dark voice of a male grumbled. Johnson and I immediately turned around and spotted a really creepy looking man, standing in the doorway threatening us with a white, silver revolver in his right hand. "Yo ye wanna shoot is right in front of a child. That's a terrible and sinful thing to do.", Johnson said to him, showing no fear at all. "She had seen way more terrible things thanks to the flawed attention of her former group. I am the good guy, here. I saved her life, and she'll know that I killed you intending to protect her.", the man barked and gave us an evil glare. What was it with this guy always insisting of being the good guy? I reckoned that he suffered heavy psychological issues since the outbreak or maybe even before it. "Just stay calm, no one needs to be shot and killed here. I know here and I know her group for a bit too. They are good people.", I tried to reason the stranger. "These people would've got her killed if I didn't take her from them. They have no idea how to look out for a child in a situation like this.", he said. "Lie!", the girl suddenly barked. "Lee knows how to protect me better than everybody else. I trust him and I want you to take me back to him.", she demanded, showing herself in a very tough manner. I honestly was impressed by that. Remembering how shy she was back in the mall. Something must have clicked inside her brain that being shy and withdrawn, wasn't the way to be in the apocalypse. "You have no clue what you are talking about, stupid kid. That guy doesn't give a damn about your well-being. He only uses you, so people show pity for your group., the man countered angrily. "That's an outrageous claim, mate. I don't know Lee in person, but from the first impression I had when my best friend and me had met her group the first time, he's a good man. You have no right to insult him that way.", I told him.
"I have my right to insult anyone who is a bad person. And Lee is. He is a killer. He killed the state senator of Georgia for sleeping with his wife. This guy probably didn't even tell it to her and the others.", the stranger said. "He did.", the girl shot back and crossed her arms in front of her chest. It looked like she wasn't scared of this psycho. If it was because she knew he would never pull the trigger or because she was pretty mature for her age, I didn't know. It still impressed me, though.
"I have enough of you!", the man growled and stomped towards the young girl, who took a few steps back. Although she did a great job of hiding any signs of fear the entire time, she now clearly was scared. She seems to be tough as long as the situation is under control of her or her allies. The man grabbed the girl and pushed her back inside the cabinet. He locked her in by closing its doors and putting a small table in front of them. That's when I lost control over my emotions. Violence against children is a thing, I really, really cannot stand. I rushed to him intending to shove him away from the cabinet. But he realized me coming towards him and immediately held me at gunpoint with his revolver. I tried ripping it out of his grip which actually worked, but he still overwhelmed me by brute force. I unfortunately wasn't the strongest lad around, so he grabbed me and pushed me onto an armchair. He then was digging something out of his pocket and stabbed it inside my right leg. I assumed it was an auto-injector of some sort, with something narcotic inside it. My muscles instantly went completely numb and I wasn't able to move at all.
### Johnson ###
With Dom out of his way, he concentrated his rage on me. Out of reflex, I immediately raised my shotgun and aimed it at this deranged man. The moment I took a shot on him, he lurched to the side and dodged it. He then proceeded to grab my gun and forcefully pulled it out of my hands. With amazement I watched him precisely throwing the gun out of an open window. I promptly pulled out my secondary Glock and tried to get a good aim at the stranger, but he also tore this gun away from me and shoved me onto the floor. A painful kick, given by the stranger made me silently grunt in pain. But I quickly got on all fours and managed to crawl away from the stranger. I passed the armchair Dom was sitting on and reached the other side of the room. The stranger however was right behind me, grabbed me and pulled me away from the wall. He pressed me on the ground and laid his knee on my chest, which made it hard to breathe. I was so scared of the possibility of maybe suffocating, that I started to fight back with all of my strength. To my amazement I actually managed to surprise him quite a lot with the amount of force I could build up against him. After a while he seemed to have enough of me and pulled out a knife. He tried to stab me in the chest which I tried to prevent with full force. At first, it looked like it would work but I felt my power quickly drowning away. I couldn't do it much longer and considered giving up as the best idea. But before I could do that, he stopped putting force against my arms with his own. Instead, he raised his arms and looked at me with a devilish look I have never seen before in anyone's eyes. While letting out a scream of rage he was about to thrust the knife at me. But to my surprise he suddenly went quiet.
The knife he firmly held in both of his hands fell to the carpet floor with a silent thud. I had closed my eyes a few seconds before, expecting them to be my last. But when I carefully opened my eyes again I saw a big hole in his chest, right where his heart was. It definitely was a gunshot. "You fucking bitch.", the stranger rattled before starting to fall forward. But before he could land face first on top of me, I pushed him away and quickly got on my feet. I instinctively yielded a few steps away from him and took a few deep breaths to get some air. My heart was punching wildly in my chest, and my body was shivering hard. When I looked up, I saw Dom still sitting on the armchair, completely dazed by whatever drug the stranger injected him. That's when something hit me.
Who the hell shot this guy?
A quick glance to my right, immediately answered my question. Somehow, the girl managed to get out of the cabinet and had shot the stranger with his own gun. The shot was definitely fatal and had killed him undoubtedly. However, I didn't know if the girl understood this. It was a terrifying thought of this kid knowing that she just killed a man, who wasn't one of those Décèsos, even though he was a complete maniac. But telling by her stiff, shocked stare and the uncontrolled shaking of her body, I knew that she understood, what she just had done.
"It's okay. He was bad. Don't worry.", I softly said and took a few steps towards her. Thankfully, she didn't get scared and allowed me to take the gun out of her hands. I figured that she might need a hug, so I carefully kneeled down to her level. My thoughts had been confirmed as she immediately lunged at me and tearfully pressed her face against my shoulder. "It's okay.", I repeated silently. "He was bad. He tried to hurt us.", I told her, trying to calm her down. Unsurprisingly it didn't really work. She continued crying heavily and wetting my hoodie with her tears, what didn't bother me at all in this situation.
The girl's constant sobbing slowly came to an end after a while. She stopped hugging me and rubbed the tears out of her eyes. "What's your name by the way?", I asked her, to try to take her mind off the stranger's death. "I'm Clementine.", she answered silently. Her voice was still very shaky. "Cool name.", I told her grinning. "I'm Johnson. I'm a good friend of Dom, who you seem to know already.", I added. "Yes, I do. A few people of my group and I met him with his best friend in a mall in the south of the city. His voice made me recognize him. I have never seen him without his mask.", Clementine replied and nodded. "Yeah, nobody had ever seen him without it. But he had to remove it, when we escaped Crawford.", I told her and took a quick look to the Brit, who was still knocked out cold. "What happened?", Clementine asked. "Oh, it's hard to explain. You see, the leader of Crawford was very strict and unfair. Many people weren't happy with him and started a revolt. This led to the downfall and collapse of his dictatorship.", I explained her slowly, so she could understand. She was still a kid after all.
"Jesus fucking Christ. What in the queen's crown just happened.", an all to known British voice said in a raspy tone. "Mon dieu, are you okay?", I asked Dom worried as I quickly rushed to him. "My muscles' still numb as crap. I can barely move.", he said a bit unclearly. He was still visibly stunned by the unknown narcotic the stranger gave him. My eyes randomly fell on an auto injector laying in the floor close to Dom's right leg. "GHB.", I read out loud as I picked up the medical tool and inspected it. "Wow, for real now. That stuff's a rape drug. Fucking creep. Where is he by the way?", Dom exclaimed. He immediately felt silent as he suddenly saw the stranger's dead body in the corner of the room. "Oh. That fixes that issue at least.", he mumbled and chuckled a bit. "Clementine shot him when he tried to stab me.", I told him, while motioning my hand towards the little girl. "Wait, what.", Dom exclaimed shocked and stared at her with wide eyes. "I had to do it.", she mumbled with her head lowered towards the ground. "It's okay. You did it to safe Johnson and that's fine. I'm just surprised that you know how to handle a gun. Especially a high calibre revolve like his.", I said. "Lee showed me. We used a different gun but I just imagined I had the one we used in my hands.", Clementine stated. "Good man, this Lee.", I said to her, which made her smile a bit.
"So, can you walk? I need to get my shotgun back.", I asked him. "I think not unfortunately. But what do you mean by getting your shogun back?", Dom countered. "This dude threw my god-damn shotgun outta the window. He just tore it out of my hands and swoosh; outta the window.", I replied, which made Clementine laugh a bit. That was a good sign for me. It seemed that she wasn't disturbed to death by herself shooting the stranger. Dom turned his head to the window. "How the hell did he managed to throw that thing through there.", he commented. "I don't know. Pure luck maybe.", I scoffed and walked towards it. "Well, at least it had a soft landing.", I joked when I looked out of it. "It landed right on a bush.", I added laughing. "Any lads in the area?", Dom asked. "Just a smidge. Not many.", I said and looked around. "There's an emergency exit leading towards the back of the building, so we don't have to go all around the block to get it.", I told the other two. "Can you do this by yourself? Don't get me wrong, but I'm really not able to walk still?", Dom asked. "Don't worry, I'll do it, no problemo.", I said and picked up my pistol, which was laying on the ground. "I come with you and watch your back. I know how to handle walkers.", Clementine suddenly said. She held the stranger's revolver in her hand and checked it's ammo. "How much you got?", I asked her. "5 out of 6.", she replied and snapped the drum back into place. "Should be enough if we're careful.", I said and opened the door. I exited the room and waited for Clementine who quickly followed suite. "Oi, that ain't the way ye do to matey.", Dom suddenly called out and looked at me with a cheeky grin. "Whatcha talking about?", I asked him a bit confused. "Never heard about 'lasses first' huh?", Dom asked. I realized he was trying to "mock" me, as he would call it. "We'll then. Next time I'll hold the door open for you, bro.", I countered. "Tosser. Now get ya godforsaken gun before lads eat it up.", he laughed. "Will do.", I said and closed the door.
"He's funny.", Clementine said as we stared moving down the hallway. "Oh yeah he is. He's a "good bloke" as he always calls me. I tell ya; this British slang of his, it drives me crazy.", I replied. "I never actually met a British person before.", Clementine giggled. "Thank god for that. They talk a lot of nonsense and like I said, their slang is just awful.", I laughed.
"Where are you from?", Clementine asked as we walked down the stairs. "Basically Canada. Saint Pierre and Miquelon. It's French overseas territory. My parents are French, but they moved to the islands because they liked it so much, every time they were on holiday there.", I answered. "I never heard of that.", Clementine remarked, which made me smile. "You don't really hear a lot of those islands. Only a few people even know what they are.", I jokingly said. "I'm from Atlanta.", Clementine said. "That's not far away from here.", I exclaimed. "No it isn't. But it's full of walkers.", the girl said. "Worse than this city?", I sarcastically asked her with a grin. "I don't know.", she said shrugging which made me chuckle.
"Alright there's the emergency exit.", I said as I spotted a door, marked with a green sign which said "EXIT". Just as I was about to open it, Clementine stopped me. "Wait.", she exclaimed. "What's wrong?", I asked her a bit confused. "You see this?", she countered and pointed on a big green box right under the door handle. "What's that?", I asked confused. "I don't know what it's called, but this is like an alarm. It goes off and makes loud noise if you open the door.", she explained. "We'll, that's bad. Good eyesight, girl. I haven't seen this thing at all.", I laughed. I kneeled down and took a closer look at the green thing, trying to find a way to deactivate it. "Judging by those pictograms here, you can turn it off by pulling it to the left.", I said after inspecting it for a while. "It might still go off when you turn it.", the girl said. I nodded. "Should we risk it?", I asked myself out loud. "I don't know. We could rush back in here quickly but it will attract a lot of them.", Clementine said. "No risk, no fun. Y'know how it works.", I chuckled stretched my hands out towards the green alarm thingy. As soon as I touched it, Clementine immediately took a few steps back and placed her hands over her ears. I chuckled lightly and started pulling the ting to the side. With a loud snap, it actually tilted to the side, thankfully staying quiet. No alarm went of whatsoever which was a huge relief for me and the young girl.
"Well then, ladies first.", I joked as I opened the door, with a big silly grin. "Dork.", Clementine scoffed and stepped through the doorway. She immediately raised her gun and watched right and left, to check the surrounding for any Décèsos. As soon as she made sure that none of the undead beasts are around, she lowered the weapon and allowed herself to relax. "Smart girl. Always on your guard. Lee trained you well.", I told her, giving her a very soft punch in the arm. Not to hurt her, of course, just to praise her. "Thanks.", she smiled and looked at me with sparkling eyes. She clearly appreciated my words and showed that they made her happy. "No thanks needed, kiddo.", I chuckled and turned my head to my left.
"The shotgun should be right over there.", I told her and pointed at the bush, I spotted when I looked out of the window. "Let's get it.", Clementine said grabbed my hand. I nodded and began walking. We only needed a few seconds to arrive at the side of the building where some bushes and trees were planted, to make the area a bit more nice. We immediately found my gun and noticed that one of us had to actually climb into the vegetation to get my weapon back. "So... who's gonna risk getting bitten by spiders, huh?", I asked Clementine while scratching my neck with my right hand. "Not me! It's your gun, so you'll climb in it. I don't want any spiders in my hair or something.", Clementine retailed, which amused me quite well. "Okay, okay, relax girl. I'm just joking.", I said raised my hands a bit in capitulation and got closer to the bush my gun was laying on... or better said in.
Carefully I stepped into the wild, unkempt vegetation. Just as I was about to reach out to grab my shotgun, I felt painful stings on my left leg. "Ouch. Ouch!", I exclaimed rather loudly. "Mon dieu, Il y a des épines partout!", I whined and tried to ignore the minor but still nerve-wracking pain. "I wish I could speak French.", I heard Clementine say, which made me smile a bit. As I finally, managed to grab my shotgun, I climbed out of the bush as fast as I could. "Hurts like little needles all over my leg, Jesus.", I complained and inspected it. Obviously, the thorns didn't leave any critical injuries but what they left, was a really annoying itch.
"Well, I could teach you some, when we catch some spare time.", I told Clementine regarding her wish to be able to speak my language. "That would be super cool.", the girl exclaimed and smiled at me. "So, you ever fired a shotgun before?", I asked her grinning, while presenting my gun to her. "No. Only a pistol.", she replied shortly and ribbed the skin of her right arm with her left hand. "We'll, shotguns have a crap ton of a recoil. You really need to watch out they don't make you fall on your back.", I laughed and reflexively pointed behind me. "Sound's painful.", Clementine spoke. "We'll can can be for people who never fired a gun before. Or at least one like this here.", I told her. "But you can blow Décèsos heads up with this.", I laughed which made the girl turn pale. "Disgusting.", she commented. "No, it's fun.", I continued laughing. Clementine shook her head and starting walking back towards the hotel. "I think you're right with the disgusting part. It definitely is for someone who's not as crazy as me.", I sighed smiling. "You're not crazy. You're just a cool guy. The stranger, he was a crazy person. A really crazy person.", she told me. "Thanks. I feel flattered.", I chuckled and petted her head which was covered by her dirty baseball cap. Clementine smiled too.
We continued walking back in silence. "I hope Dom's back in action now.", I said as we entered the hotel. This made Clementine freeze. Her face again turned absolutely pale and her eyes were widely open. "Do you know what we forgot?", s the girl asked seemingly scared. I thought about her question for a second. It had to do something with Dom because she acted like this when we started talking about him. That's when it hit me. The stranger! We completely forgot to destroy his brain. "Oh no. The stranger. He's gonna turn.", I whispered and started sprinting towards the stairs. Clementine immediately followed me. "I hope he's alright.", she said. A gunshot made us jump. We quickly pushed the shock out of our minds and quickened our pace. In a matter of a few seconds we were back, at the hotel room we left Dom behind in. I busted through the door, shotgun ready to blow the zombified stranger's head off, if needed. But to Clementine's and my surprise, the stranger was already dead. Dom, who was panting heavily, stood not far away from his corpse. "Couldn't you at least warn me that you two nitwits forgot to smash his stupid head?", he asked panting. "Sorry, Dom. We completely forgot about that. Did he hurt you?", Clementine said worried. "Ah, don't worry kiddo. Looks like a ton of adrenalin can quash the effects of this drug.", he said and waved the girl's worries off. "So you're back on your feet, huh?", I asked him. "Well, kinda. I don't know if I could hold on for long. I really could use some rest, like actual sleep. I'm totally knackered.", he answered. "We still need to leave. You fired a gun and the walkers surely heard that.", the young girl stated, impressing me again by her ability to understand what's going on. "I agree. Let us GTFO and look for your folk.", the oldest member of our small group stated and started walking towards the hotel room's door.
Not long after Clementine, Dom and I were out of the Marsh House. Leaving behind an abandoned hotel, with creepy things and scary memories inside it. I wondered how Clementine would cope with the kidnapping or if she even cares at all. She seems very tough to me and the only thing she wants was to be reunified with her former group. I also think that Dom and I are going to help her, without a doubt. But, I never expected that this decision, would turn out be bring massive surprise for me and Dom with it.